Massacre in the Dungeons
by marylou
Summary: Albus Dumbledore's actions set off a chain reaction that affects the entire wizarding world.
1. Chapter 1

Harry was just helping himself to a baked potato when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and terror in his face. Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll- in the dungeons- thought you ought to know."

He then sank to the floor in a dead faint.

There was an uproar. It took several purple firecrackers exploding from the end of Professor Dumbledore's wand to bring silence.

"Prefects," he rumbled, "lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!"

Percy was in his element amidst the resulting confusion.

"Follow me! Stick together, first years! No need to fear the troll if you follow my orders! Stay close behind me, now. Make way, first years coming through. Excuse me, I'm a prefect!"

Up at the teachers' table, Snape ignored the noise and confusion as he leaned across the table towards Dumbledore.

"Albus," he hissed. "What are you doing, sending my students to their dormitories? They're in the dungeons, where the troll is!"

"Nonsense!" Dumbledore beamed. "You're assuming that Quirrell is even telling the truth! And even if he is, the troll is likely to be in a completely different part of the dungeons altogether. Your Slytherins will be completely safe."

"All the same," Snape said, standing and pushing his chair back. "I'd feel better if I escorted them myself."

"But Severus, we will need all the teachers together to deal with the troll. It is imperative that you stay here. I really must insist."

Next to him, McGonagall stood suddenly. "Severus is right. Right now, our priority is the students. My Gryffindors will be fine in their tower." She turned to Snape. "I'll go with you." They hurried out of the great hall, hurrying to catch up to the Slytherin students.

"But. . ." Dumbledore said weakly behind them. "My plan. . . What about my plan?"

Still in the great hall, among the other Gryffindors, Harry and Ron passed different groups of people hurrying in different directions. As they jostled their way through a crowd of confused Hufflepuffs, Harry suddenly grabbed Ron's arm.

"I've just thought- Hermione."

"What about her?"

"She doesn't know about the troll."

Ron bit his lip. "Oh, all right," he snapped. "But Percy had better not see us."

Ducking down, they joined the Hufflepuffs going the other way, slipped down a deserted side corridor, and hurried off towards the girls' bathroom. Harry tapped on the door. "Hermione? Are you in there?"

There was a muffled cry from inside. "Go away!"

Harry opened the door carefully, peering inside. "Hermione, you've got to come with us, there's a troll loose in the school. We're supposed to go back to our dormitories while the teachers take care of it."

Hermione gave a watery snort. "Don't be ridiculous. As if I'd fall for something like that. There's no way for a troll to get inside the castle grounds unless someone let it in. There are wards around the school that prevent dangerous magical creatures from entering. It's in _Hogwarts a History._

"Really?" Harry blinked, looking over at Ron, who shrugged. "Then someone must have let it in, because Quirrell ran into the great hall and said that there's a troll in the dungeons. And then Dumbledore told everyone to go back to their dormitories. And then we remembered that you were. . . were not there, so. . .so we went to go find you."

Hermione looked at him tearfully. "You- you came back for me? You were worried about me?"

Harry looked down at the floor awkwardly. "Well, yeah. I'm mean, we couldn't just leave you alone with a troll on the loose."

She burst into tears again and threw herself into his arms. Harry patted her back hesitantly, looking over at Ron again for help. He didn't look like he knew what to do either. He just looked awkwardly at Harry, turned, and left.

* * *

A few floors below, the Slytherin students were continuing on their way to the dungeons.

"See, this is proof that Dumbledore is beyond his prime and should step down. Imagine, a troll getting into the castle! I would hate to be in _his_ shoes when my father hears about this," Malfoy said pompously.

Behind him, Daphne Greengrass snorted. "Grow up, Malfoy."

He turned to glare at her. "Did I ask for your opinion, Greengrass?"

She rolled her eyes. "I don't care what-" she broke off. "Did you hear that?"

Malfoy sneered. "If you're trying to scare us, Greengrass, you'll have to try harder than that. There's nothing there."

"No," she frowned. "I definitely heard something. And Quirrell said that the troll was in the dungeons. We're almost to the dungeons." She sniffed. "What's that smell?"

"Stinks," Crabbe grunted.

Malfoy sniffed, wrinkling up his nose. "Ugh, Goyle, can't you save that for when you're alone?" He turned the corner, still leading the other Slytherins, and screamed. The other Slytherins had a rare Gryffindor moment and rushed forward to see what it was. It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, the troll's skin was a dull, granite gray, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top. It had short legs thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet. The smell coming from it was incredible. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor behind it.

Malfoy stared up at it in shock, the other Slytherins crowded up behind him so he couldn't run. He was taking a deep breath to scream again when the troll swung its club. His scream was cut off abruptly as the club hit him with a dull, hollow sound, sending him into the wall with a painful crunch. He collapsed onto his side, breathing raspily through the pain of his cracked ribs, a trickle of blood running from his mouth. The rest of the snakes scattered, the majority of them trying to run back the way they had come, the slower ones trampled underfoot.

A prefect brandished his wand at the troll, screaming out a stupefy. The spell hit the troll and dissipated into its hide. As the prefect tightened his grip on his wand and turned to run, the troll reached out and bashed his head in. As the prefect's body crumpled lifeless to the ground, Daphne edged over to where Malfoy lay. "Wingardium leviosa," she muttered under her breath as she waved her wand over him. His body lifted up in the air and she turned around to face where the troll was, moving carefully around it, trying not to let it see her. The troll didn't seem to notice her, focusing his attention on the slower moving Slytherins instead. Daphne rounded the corner behind the troll, taking a few hesitant steps down the corridor before taking off at a run, Malfoy's body floating in the air behind her.

On their way to catch up to the Slytherins, Snape and McGonagall came upon the fleeing students. Snape grabbed one as he ran past, his thin fingers biting into his shoulder. "What happened?" The boy took a gasping breath as he tried to speak. "Answer me!" Snape shook him. "Why are you running? What are you running from? Is it the troll?"

McGonagall put a hand on his shoulder. "Severus, calm down. Give him time to catch his breath."

"The- the troll- it attacked us. Got Malfoy, and Pucey. I think they're dead." Snape's face whitened. "Where's the troll now?"

The boy pointed back down the corridor that he had run from. Snape released him and started running down the corridor, pushing students aside as he did. Behind him, McGonagall pulled out her wand and sent a patronus out before following him at a run.

Snape cleared the corner and stopped short at the sight of the troll about to hit a second year girl. "Protego!" he cried. A silvery shield appeared in front of the girl as the troll's club glanced of it. It roared in anger, looking around for the source. Snape ran over and pulled the girl up, pushing her out of the way. "Go! Get out of here!" She turned and fled.

McGonagall arrived a few moments after the girl had left, looking around the hall in despair. There were dents in the walls from the troll's club. A few paintings had been knocked off the walls, the inhabitants long gone. Behind the troll, a few bodies could be seen, either the troll's victims or those who had been trampled by the mob. A smear of blood could be seen further on where, unbeknownst to them, Draco Malfoy's body had lain.

"A completely different part of the dungeons?" She muttered. "I'm going to kill Albus."

Snape snorted. "You'll have to get in line. How did the troll even get inside the castle? Albus' wards should have stopped it."

McGonagall's lips narrowed. "I think that it's suspicious that Quirrell was the only teacher not at the feast and was also the one to find the troll."

Snape tightened his grip on his wand. "Do you know where everyone else is?"

She shrugged. "I sent a patronus to Albus. I think he was planning on gathering all the staff together before searching the castle."

"Maybe you should try sending a patronus to someone else. Filius, perhaps. I wouldn't put it past our esteemed headmaster to be too sure that he is right to come to our aid," Snape said dryly.

McGonagall winced at his description, but nodded, and soon they were watching her patronus scamper down the hall.

The troll finally realized that there was something blocking its way and brandished his club over its head, hitting Snape's shield. Snape flinched and tightened his grip on his wand, focusing on his shield. McGonagall added her own shield charm to his.

"So, what now?" Snape asked. "Should we just hold it here as long as we can until help arrives?"

McGonagall nodded. "That would be the best solution. It's too dangerous to try and fight it with just the two of us. As long as we maintain our shield and keep a good distance, we'll be fine." The troll hit the shield again, grunting when nothing happened. It began to walk the length of the shield, hitting it every now and then. As it did so, its foot brushed up against one of the wounded students lying sprawled on the ground. The student groaned, stirring slightly. The troll paused its movement.

Snape watched with bated breath. "Do you think it heard that?"

The troll turned, looking around. McGonagall bit her lip. "I think it did. If I distract the troll, do you think you could get the student out of here?"

Snape snorted. "Don't be such a Gryffindor. I'll distract it. You get Miss Farley."

McGonagall hesitated, then nodded. "Very well. But be careful, Severus. You know how resistant trolls are to spells," she cautioned. "Ready?"

Snape nodded.

They lowered their wands together, dropping the shield. Snape dashed off to one side, yelling at the troll. He sent a spell at it, opening up bloody cuts all over its body. The troll roared in pain and stumbled to the side. McGonagall took the opportunity and ran forward, crouching over the girl. She cast a few healing spells to stabilize her condition before levitating her and moving back.

"I've got her!" She yelled at Snape. "I'll be fine! Go get the other students!" he yelled back.

She nodded and set the girl gently on the floor, casting a simple protection charm over her before running back. The troll saw her moving out of the corner of his eye and started moving towards her. She dodged its grasp, flicking a quick spell at it. Snape sent an incarcerous at it, wrapping its upper body in ropes. The troll roared, struggling to break free of the ropes. While it was restrained, Snape sent a sickly looking green spell at it. It hit the troll's knee, shattering it and sending a splatter of blood, flesh, and shattered bone everywhere. The troll screamed in pain and collapsed onto its side.

Snape wiped his face with the sleeve of his robe, trying to get the troll's blood off so he could see. While his vision was blocked, the troll caught sight of him. It reached over to him from where it lay the ground, the club still in its grasp.

McGonagall, helping a student to rise, gasped, "No!"

Snape looked up in time to see the troll's club coming straight at him. He managed to dodge to the side, but the club hit him with a glancing blow in the middle of his back. There was a loud crack. Snape collapsed to the floor, his face grimacing in pain. McGonagall reacted quickly, pointing her wand at the troll. "Avada kedavra," she said grimly. The green bolt hit the troll directly in the chest. It died before it had a chance to make another sound, its head thudding onto the ground.

Lying unmoving on the floor, Snape smirked slightly. "Playing with unforgivables now, Minerva?" he gasped.

"Shut up," she snapped at him. She set the student she had been helping on the ground and hurried over to him.

"No!" he gasped. "The other students! Help the other students first."

McGonagall shook her head solemnly. "No need. Mr. Jones is not in imminent danger, and the other two are already gone."

She bent over him, waving her wand in a diagnosis spell. Her face whitened.

"It's bad, isn't it," he rasped.

"What makes you say that?"

He snorted. "You would have made a terrible Slytherin. It's written all over your face. And there's also the fact that I can't feel my legs."

They heard the sound of running footsteps coming down the hall. Snape moved his hand desperately around on the floor, searching for the wand he had dropped, while Minerva stepped protectively in front of him. They collectively sighed in relief as Flitwick came into sight.

He skidded to a stop next to the pile of unconscious or wounded students and gaped at them. Snape lay on the floor, groaning in pain while Minerva kneeled next to him. His robes were splattered with blood, both his own and that of the troll's. The back of his robes were positively drenched in his blood. The troll carcass lay next to him, its left leg completely destroyed. A few students were still scattered around the scene, most of them not moving.

"What?" he gasped. "What happened?"

"Is anyone else coming?" Minerva asked.

"No," Flitwick shook his head. "Dumbledore has everyone else searching elsewhere in the castle. He's convinced that Quirrell lied about the troll."

"As you can see," Minerva said dryly, "he didn't. Go fetch Pomona and Poppy, then floo for St. Mungo's and the aurors."

"And Dumbledore? Should I get him as well?"

She almost growled. "No. If he gets near me, then I won't be responsible for anything I may say or do to him."

He stepped closer. "Is Severus all right?"

"He's stabilized for now, but he desperately needs medical attention, as do numerous other students. So get moving!" She yelled the last bit.

Flitwick squeaked in surprise and turned to scurry away. McGonagall sighed, leaning forward to rest her head in her hands.

* * *

 **Portions of this chapter were taken and adapted from _The Philosopher's / Sorcerer's Stone._**


	2. Chapter 2

Harry stared across the room at the near-empty Slytherin table. The great hall was quieter than it normally was, with a few empty seats scattered throughout the other houses.

"I can hardly believe it," Hermione said quietly from next to him. "I thought that Dumbledore was really smart and powerful. Shouldn't he have sent someone other than Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape?"

"Oh, lighten up, you two. It's not as if the troll got anyone that mattered," Ron spoke through a mouthful of food. "It's just a few of the slimy snakes. It's probably a good thing, too. Now the world will have less evil wizards running around. And you should be celebrating, Harry. The greasy git is gone! Think about it, no more potions! I even hear that there's a chance that he'll die! I don't know why the entire school isn't celebrating." Harry and Hermione stared at him in shock. He swallowed his mouthful and glanced at them. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You- you- I don't believe it!" Hermione snapped, throwing her arms in the air. "How can you be so _callous?_ It doesn't matter what _house_ someone is in; it matters that students are _dead_!"

Ron snorted. "Look, Granger, since you're a muggleborn you might not realize it, but Slytherins are evil. That troll did us a favor." He nudged Harry's shoulder. "C'mon, mate, back me up here." Harry shook his head slowly. "No, Ron, Hermione's right. You can't just say that someone's life doesn't matter because of their house. That sounds like something Voldemort would say." Ron flinched violently at the name. "And I know Snape hates me, but from what I heard, he was hurt trying to save some of the students. That sounds like something that Gryffindors should admire. Besides, did you see McGonagall's face when the healers took him? I think they're friends. And if the head of Gryffindor can be friends with a Slytherin," Harry said determinedly, "then I think that we should all try better to get along with them."

Ron stared at him. "Barmy, that's what you are. _You-Know-Who_ was a Slytherin. That means that they're evil."

"But what about Merlin?" Hermione asked. "I thought that he was in Slytherin too."

"But that was a long time ago. Things change."

Hermione threw her hands up in the air. "I can't believe you!" She stood up, grabbing her bag. "That's it. I'm leaving."

"What! Why?"

"Because, Weasley, you are a bigoted, selfish jerk and I do not want to associate with you anymore." She glared at him one last time before stalking off with a huff. Ron watched her leave with a bemused expression on his face. "Mental, that one." He turned back to Harry, only to see him standing up too. "Oh, come on, Harry, don't listen to her, she doesn't know what she's talking about."

Harry shook his head solemnly. "Actually, I think what she's saying makes a lot of sense. And until you change your attitude, I don't think I want to be friends with you either." Ron watched in shock as Harry walked away.

"The entire school's gone mad," he muttered.

* * *

Albus sighed, leaning forward to rest his head in his hands. Everything had been going so well. Harry had befriended the youngest Weasley boy and had been sorted into Gryffindor, just as he had expected. And thanks to the Malfoy boy and Severus's grudge against James Potter, he had been learning to hate Slytherins. Everything had been set for Harry's confrontation with the shade of Voldemort, until this had happened.

Now his entire school was in chaos. Two students dead and a professor injured, perhaps fatally. And not just any professor; his key to winning the upcoming war was lying in a hospital bed. Now what would he do when Tom returned? His spy was useless now. Voldemort probably would not take him back if he were permanently injured, and furthermore it was not likely that Severus would be willing to spy for him after this incident. Perhaps, if he recovered, the young Malfoy boy could be manipulated into spying for him. It would be tricky, he mused, but doable. Albus picked up a chess piece from his marble set, turning it over in his hands as he thought. Yes, it would be doable. He grabbed a sheet of parchment to begin writing Severus' employment termination letter.

* * *

Minerva entered the hospital wing carefully. "Severus?" She asked softly.

He turned his head to face her. "Are you expecting someone else?" he asked sarcastically.

She sat down on the chair next to his bed, watching his face. "How are you feeling?"

"I'll feel better when it stops hurting."

She smiled slightly. "I guess it would be too much to hope that you wouldn't be sarcastic?"

"You guess right."

There was silence.

"How many?"

"Two," she said solemnly. "Theodore Nott and Miles Bletchley. Draco Malfoy is still in a coma; the troll knocked him into a wall and he hit his head. Jonathan Jones received a broken arm."

He nodded slowly. "Do you know how the Notts and Malfoys are reacting? I can't imagine that they will let Albus go untouched after this fiasco."

Minerva paused. "I'm not sure how they're reacting. I do know that Madame Bones is sending aurors to Hogwarts to investigate the situation tomorrow. Her niece Susan is a Hufflepuff, and so was also in danger from the troll, so she is leading that task force personally. I believe that Lucius Malfoy is pushing for Albus to be put on probation. I don't know if it will go through, though. They still don't know how the troll got into the castle, so the ministry is concentrating on that before dealing with Albus. There haven't been any classes since the attack because so many parents have taken their children out of school. It will take a while for the school to recover."

Severus nodded "Yes, and it will be especially difficult to find a new potions professor in the middle of the year."

"What?" Minerva gasped. "Aren't you coming back to Hogwarts when you are released? What are you going to do?"

He shook his head ruefully. "No, I do not think I will return. There has never been anything for me at Hogwarts; the troll attack is just the straw to break the camel's back." He shrugged slightly. "As for what I shall do now, who knows? With my inheritance from the Prince family, I am in no need of money. Perhaps I shall travel, take a vacation. Maybe do some research."

"We'll have to find a new head of house for Slytherin as well as a new potions teacher," Minerva murmured thoughtfully, already thinking ahead.

"I believe that Aurora Sinistra would make a decent head, if you want my advice. And Timothy Bowman recently received his potions mastery just last year and is looking for employment."

She nodded. "He was one of your prefects a few years ago, wasn't he?"

"Yes. He is a bit more intelligent than the normal dunderheads. He would make a decent potions professor."

There was a knock at the door and one of the healers poked her head in. "Professor? Visiting hours are over."

Minerva nodded at her. "Thank you, I will be right out." She turned to Severus, standing. "I wish you luck in your new life, Severus."

"I wish you luck with the fiasco you have on your hands at school," he responded wryly. "You'll need it."

She smiled exasperatedly at him, rolling her eyes at him as she left.

* * *

Dumbledore sat at his desk, browsing through the paperwork that the auror department had left after their inspection. They only had a few concerns, mainly to do with the acromantula in the forbidden forest and the protections for the stone. It was the unspeakables that had come with the aurors who were creating problems. He was a busy man; he didn't have the time to remove all the dark objects hidden in the Room of Requirements! And the Hogwarts funds were running low anyway; few people realized just how costly lemon drops were. Those upstart unspeakables didn't even know what they were talking about. The Mirror of Erised was barely even dark! Just because it had caused the deaths of a few foolish people didn't mean it was dark. They had even told him that Slytherin's basilisk had to be removed! Didn't they realize how useful the basilisk would have been in testing Harry? Dumbledore sighed. It would take him a few months, but he would get everything back to the way it should be for the greater good.

He jumped, startled as the door to his office flew upon. "How did you get in?" he thundered at the man, not recognizing him at first.

"Albus, what have you done?" the man glared at him. Dumbledore blinked in surprise. "Ah, yes, Nicolas, my boy, what brings you here?"

"You know very well what brought me here, old man. I agreed to move my stone to Hogwarts, despite the fact that I have kept it safe myself for hundreds of years, as a personal favor for you. The wards are stronger here than almost anywhere else, but I expressly told you to place the stone somewhere safe and place protections around it."

"But that's what I did, Nicolas. The stone was behind the strongest protections that my staff could think of!"

Nicolas shook his head furiously. "Those _protections_ were pitiful! A drunk house elf could have gotten past them! You know, there are these fancy new spells, perhaps you've heard of them. Fidelius charm. Age line. Dark repelling wards. Intruder charms. Any one of them would have been better than what you had."

"I'm sorry, Nicolas, I tried my best, truly I did."

Nicolas snorted in disbelief. "I doubt that, Albus. I'm sure that you had some great master plan involving my stone. I am removing it and placing it somewhere much safer."

Dumbledore nodded solemnly. "Perhaps you are right, my friend. I will go fetch it for you."

Nicolas shook his head, smirking. "No need, I have it already. I wouldn't want to inconvenience you." He started toward the door before turning around to face Dumbledore one last time. "And, by the way, our association is now over. I wish to never see you again." He stormed out, leaving a disgruntled headmaster behind him.

* * *

Harry and Hermione sat at a table in the library, poring over a book together, their heads close together. Harry said something that made Hermione smile. She nudged him with her shoulder, saying something back to make him laugh. Across the room from them, another student watched enviously.

Ron glared at them over the top of the book. "Who does she think she is?" he muttered under his breath. "Harry's supposed to be _my_ friend."

"What?" he heard behind him. Ron turned around to see his brothers, Fred and George behind him. "What are you talking about?"

"Them!" Ron gestured angrily. "That _muggleborn_ is corrupting Harry and stealing him away from me!"

"Really?" Fred raised his eyebrow. "How is she corrupting him? He looks like he's enjoying himself."

"But- but she's giving him the wrong ideas! She doesn't know how important Harry is! He needs to be kept away from dangerous influences."

George shook his head. "I think you've got the wrong idea here, Ron. You can't decide for Harry who his friends are."

"But you didn't hear her," Ron protested. "They were defending _Slytherins!_ "

Fred shrugged. "So? What does that matter?"

Ron stared at him in shock. "Fred, Slytherins are evil."

George looked at him funny. "Ron, they're just kids. Some of them may be arrogant gits,"

"And some of them may be filthy prats," Fred continued.

"But children can't be evil," George finished.

"Well, they may not all be evil now, but they're going to grow up and be evil, just like You-Know-Who."

"Ron, where did you even get these ideas?"

"What are you talking about? Everyone knows this."

Fred shook his head, a smile growing on his face. "Gred, I think our dear brother needs a lesson in interhouse appreciation." George pulled out his wand. "Forge, I was thinking the exact same thing."

Harry and Hermione looked up from their studying when they heard a scream. "Look," Harry pointed. "What's wrong with Ron?"

Hermione laughed. "It looks like he's trying to show solidarity with the victims of the recent attack."

They laughed together, watching Ron run out of the library with his face bright red and his hair striped silver and green.

* * *

"I really do not think that this is necessary," Dumbledore protested. "The aurors have already inspected the school."

"We are aware of Madame Bones' actions, however, the Hogwart's Board of Governors would like to be personally reassured," Lucius Malfoy said coldly.

"Really, this is not necessary," Dumbledore protested again.

"Headmaster, my son is still in a coma because of your utter incompetence and buffoonery. If you do not allow me to reassure myself that this school is still safe, then I will bring you down. I will utterly destroy you until you won't even be accepted in the worst slums of Knockturn Alley," Lucius hissed.

Dumbledore smiled cheerily, his eyes twinkling menacingly. "Now, Lucius, there is no need to threaten me. I just wanted to make sure that you know that you are wasting your time here."

"That will be my decision to make, not yours," Lucius said briskly. "And now, I will leave you to your work." He turned to leave the office.

"Oh, but my dear boy, I thought that perhaps I could show you around the school myself. You know, it is a rather large castle, quite easy to get lost. Why, just the other day. . ."

Lucius' eye twitched in irritation at being addressed as a 'dear boy.'

"In case you have forgotten, Headmaster, I attended school here for seven years. I believe I am entirely capable of finding my own way."

"Are you sure? Perhaps another staff member would be willing to accompany you. I'm sure Hagrid would be willing."

Lucius' hand tightened on his cane. "Good day, Headmaster."

* * *

Lucius stood in the hallway where the attack had happened, looking around at the freshly scrubbed walls. This was where it had happened. Where his son's life had been ruined. Draco had yet to awaken, and as it was, even if he did wake up, the healers doubted he would ever return to normal. He mentally cursed the fact that the so-called leader of the light had made such terrible decisions and put the school at risk. He turned to leave but stopped short.

"Professor Quirrell," he said in surprise. "What brings you here?"

"I just wanted to see where it happened. It's such a shame, isn't it. All of that potential cut short so early in life." Quirrell moved closer to Lucius, his eyes on his face and his stutter completely gone. "It is a shame that they were purebloods. Now, if they had been mudbloods, then it wouldn't have mattered."

Lucius eyed him warily. "I'm afraid I must disagree with you. It matters little who they were. What matters is the loss of life."

Quirrell moved closer, smirking slightly. "Are you sure that that is what you truly believe? I was under the impression that you had belonged to a certain . . . organization that espoused beliefs to the contrary."

Lucius' eyes narrowed. "Be careful, Quirrell, what you say. I have been cleared of all charges."

Quirrell nodded. "Yes, and that is all very well, but are you sure-"

"Enough!" he was interrupted by a dry, hissing voice. "Let me speak to him . . . face-to face."

"Master, you are not strong enough!" Quirrell protested.

"I have strength enough . . . for this."

Lucius gripped his wand tighter. That voice . . . it sounded so familiar . . . but surely not, that was impossible.

Quirrell reached up and began to unwrap his turban. As the turban fell away, Quirrell's head was revealed, looking strangely small without it. Then he turned slowly on the spot.

Lucius made a slight sound, almost a gasp. Where there should have been a back to Quirrell's head, there was instead a face, chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, almost like a snake.

"Master. . . "

"Am I really, Lucius? I had thought that you were one of my most faithful, but then you abandoned me, left me alone. Are you truly mine?"

"Of- of course, my lord," Lucius knelt. "I have remained always faithful to you. It is just that I feared, when we heard nothing from you, that you had been . . . incapacitated. I thought it would be better to ingratiate myself with the ministry in preparation for your return."

"Hm," Voldemort mused. "Perhaps you did right. I will give you the benefit of the doubt for now." Lucius breathed a silent sigh of relief.

"You were right, anyway. I was incapacitated, for a time at least. But soon I shall rise again, stronger and more powerful than ever before. We shall purge the world and rebuild from the ashes of the filth."

"And the troll? Was that you? What was its purpose?"

"Merely a distraction. Unfortunately, I overestimated Dumbledore, and now I have to deal with _aurors_ inspecting the school!"

"My son was attacked," Lucius hissed. "Your troll attacked my son."

Voldemort waved Quirrell's hand, brushing his protest away. "A few losses are expected, Lucius. His sacrifice will be the first of many to come to usher in the Age of Purity."

Lucius looked thoughtful. "Perhaps you are right, my lord."

"Perhaps?"

"I am sorry master, of course you are right. My son was just an unfortunate casualty, the first of many."

"Yes!" Voldemort crowed. "Yes, now you begin to understand. Sacrifices must be made. Yes, my loyal servant, I have always known that you would be the most loyal to me. That is why I have trusted you above all others. And now I have a task for you."

Lucius bowed his head. "Anything for my lord."

"That old fool thinks that he has beaten me. He thinks that I do not see what he has done." He watched Lucius carefully. "I need you to steal the Philosopher's Stone."

"My lord?" Lucius asked, confused. "No one knows the location of the stone. Flamel has always hidden it well. How can I steal it?"

"You are right in saying that Flamel has always hidden it well, but he has made the mistake of trusting Dumbledore with it. It is somewhere in the school, I know it. I can feel it. I was so close to having it in my hands in Gringotts. So close. And now that my plan here has been thwarted, I need a new strategy. And you shall help me."

Lucius bowed deeper. "Of course, my lord. I would be most pleased to. I shall bring you the stone as soon as I have it in my possession."

* * *

Quirrell sat behind his desk, grading student essays. Voldemort was resting, conserving his energy for when he needed it. It had taken quite a bit out of him to speak to Lucius, but it had been worth it. Now that they had another ally, especially one as wealthy and well connected as Lucius, the timeline for his complete return had been expedited. And when the Dark Lord finally took his rightful place as ruler of the wizarding world and the filth were put in their place, then he, Quirinus Quirrell, would stand at the right hand of the ruler of the world.

He smiled, satisfied. Yes, everything was looking up now. He shuffled the stack of papers, straightening them and placing them in an open drawer. He was just standing to leave when he heard a small shuffling sound from the corner. He turned towards it to see what it was just in time to be struck in the face by a bolt of bright green light. He staggered back, knocking over the chair behind him. The figure in the corner watched coldly as Quirrell collapsed to the floor, his turban on the floor next to his head. A dark smoke rose up from the prone figure, starting to gather into a cloud before the figure in the corner brandished his wand at it, gathering the darkness into a sphere behind shimmering shields. The man stepped out of the shadows and lit the dark cloud with fiendfyre, watching as a shrieking face briefly formed before burning up. When the last traces of the darkness had been destroyed and the ashes had been vanished, the man turned his attention to Quirrell's body, transfiguring it into a chamber pot before vanishing it. His work done, Lucius spat on the floor where Quirrell's body had lain.

"That was for my son."

* * *

 **In response to those of you who say that siblings wouldn't act as different from each other as Ron, Fred, and George did in this chapter, I would like to point out that Bellatrix Lestrange and Andromeda Tonks were sisters.**


	3. Chapter 3

Harry and Hermione were sitting together at the Gryffindor table, across from Fred and George, when the headmaster stood up. "Everyone, could I have your attention please, I have an important announcement to make. Please quiet down," he said somberly.

"I wonder what this is about," Hermione murmured.

"As many of you are aware," Dumbledore began, "The aurors, unspeakables, and the Hogwarts Board of Governors have all recently inspected the school. As a result of their findings, Hogwarts will undergo a magical cleansing over the upcoming Christmas holidays while a few items that have been termed dangerous are removed. As such, all students must vacate the school over the upcoming holidays. If anyone has any questions, please direct them towards your head of house," he concluded bitterly.

"Blimey," George said. "What do you think they found that was so dangerous that everyone has to leave?"

Fred shrugged. "Beats me. But whatever it is, it's a shame that we couldn't have found it ourselves."

"Oh, really!" Hermione huffed. "Why on earth would you want to do something so dangerous, especially after what happened at Halloween?"

"Well, in case you haven't noticed, Granger, we are in the house of the brave, and what's more brave then fighting dangerous magical creatures or destroying dark artifacts?"

"Well, I think it's highly irresponsible of you to even contemplate such a thing." She turned to Harry. "Harry, please tell me that you don't have the same feelings about rushing into danger as Fred and George have."

He looked up. "Hmm? What'd you say?"

She sighed. "Were you even listening to our conversation?"

He shrugged silently.

Hermione frowned. "Harry? Are you alright?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"So, Harry, what do you think?" Fred asked. "Do you want to go exploring and looking for danger?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know." He stood. "I've got to do. I have homework to finish. I'll see you guys later."

Hermione watched him leave, frowning slightly. "Do you two know what's bothering him?"

George shook his head. "No idea. Do you think maybe he's still upset about the troll attack?"

"No, I thought he'd gotten over that. I think this is something else."

* * *

Harry sat in one of the armchairs in front of the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room, staring blankly at the pages of his potions textbook. He had thought that he wouldn't have to see the Dursleys until school was over, but now the Board of Governors was saying that he had to leave for the holidays. He sighed deeply, slumping down into the seat cushions. How would Uncle Vernon react? He had told Harry not to come home until the summer. Would he knock him around a little, or just yell at him? How bad would it be?

"Harry?" he heard behind him. Harry turned around to see Hermione, looking anxious. "Harry, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," he managed. "I just- I wanted to see what a magical Christmas is like. I wonder how they would have decorated the school. Do you think Hagrid would have brought in Christmas trees?"

Hermione bit her lip, looking at him. It seemed to her as if it was more than just Harry being disappointed about not being able to experience Christmas at Hogwarts. "Harry, do you want to spend the Christmas break at my house?"

He looked up at her. "Is that- wouldn't your parents mind? I don't- I don't want to ruin their Christmas for them."

She shook her head. "I think they'd be fine with it. I've never really had friends over," she confessed.

"That's fine, I've never really been invited to anyone's house before. So do you really think they'll let me stay with you?"

"Probably. I'll go write them."

"Wow. Thanks Hermione!" Harry was so excited he almost bounced on the seat. "You can borrow Hedwig, if you want, to write them. How soon do you think they'll respond?"

* * *

" _Dear Mum and Dad,_

 _Remember how I told you about my new friend, Harry? Well, I was wondering if he could spend Christmas break with us. He was planning on staying at school over the holidays, but now the headmaster has announced that everyone has to leave the school over the break so that the unspeakables can remove some dangerous items (Unspeakables are these really mysterious government workers, sort of like a magical James Bond). Harry didn't really seem excited about going home for Christmas, so I told him that I would write and ask if he could come home with me. I told him that I had never had any friends over, and he said that he'd never been invited to a friend's house, so we're equal in that regard._

 _Please respond promptly, as Harry is rather apprehensive._

 _Love, Hermione"_

* * *

" _Dear Hermione,_

 _We would love to have one of your friends over for Christmas! It's so wonderful that you have such a close friend. We'll be at the platform to pick up the two of you on the nineteenth._

 _We've already started getting the guest room ready for Harry._

 _Also, what is Harry's favorite meal, and what do you think he would like as a Christmas present?_

 _See you soon!_

 _Love, Mum and Dad"_

* * *

A few weeks later, Harry and Hermione stood together on the platform of Station 9 ¾, waiting for Hermione's parents to arrive.

"Is that them?" Harry asked anxiously, pointing at couple.

Hermione shook her head. "Nope, that's not them. Calm down, Harry, they said that they'd be a bit late because of the construction in front of the station."

Harry sat down on his trunk, slumping forward.

A few people walked past as they waited, with the Gryffindor quidditch team patting him on the head as they walked by.

"There they are!" Hermione pointed.

Harry jumped up. "They're here? Where?" He reached up and patted nervously at his hair, trying to flatten it.

"There!" Hermione pointed again. "Mum's the one wearing the gaudy Christmas jumper, and dad's right next to her."

When Hermione's parents had had made it to where the two children were standing by their trunks, Jean Granger opened her arms to hug Hermione, while Daniel Granger reached out a hand to Harry. "Ah, you must be young Harry. Hermione's written us quite a bit about you."

Harry shook Dr. Granger's hand, glancing over at Hermione. "Really?"

"Oh, come on, dad, I haven't written _that_ much!" Hermione interjected, coming over to hug him.

"Really?" He raised an eyebrow. "I think he was the only thing you talked about in your last letter."

Hermione blushed. She grabbed Harry's hand. "Come on, Harry, I'll introduce you to mum."

He pulled back at her grip. "But what about my trunk?"

Hermione glared at her father. "I think dad just volunteered to take it."

Daniel chuckled, reaching down to grab the trunk handle. "Wow, this is so much lighter compared to Hermione's trunk. Is this what a normal trunk would feel like if it didn't have an entire library in it?"

Hermione glared at him again and walked off towards her mum, dragging Harry behind her. Jean reached out to rest a hand on Harry's shoulder in greeting, a bit uncertain when Harry twitched away from her before relaxing.

"Hi Harry, I'm Hermione's mum, but you can call me Jean, and this is Daniel." She smiled brightly at him. Harry give a tentative smile back, glancing over at Hermione in uncertainty.

"Well, shall we go then?" Daniel asked, hefting Harry's trunk.

* * *

Jean unlocked the front door to their house, stepping inside and switching the lights on. Harry followed tentatively, looking curiously around the kitchen that he now found himself in. The walls were painted white with a red trim running around the top of the walls, with a few landscape paintings adorning the walls. There was a jar of biscuits sitting on the countertop next to the breadbox. Through a door to the right, he could see a dining table surrounded by four chairs.

"Come on," Daniel said to Harry. "I'll show you your room." He walked out the kitchen and down the hallway, with a curious Harry following him. They passed a few open doors, and Harry peered inside. He saw a study, a big open room with a muggle entertainment system, and what was probably Hermione's favorite room: a library. At the end of the hallway, Daniel turned into an open room. "This is the guest room, where you'll be staying."

Harry stopped in the doorway and looked around at the room.

There was a twin bed in the corner, with a dark green coverlet on top. A large window with a window seat was next to the bed, with white curtains framing it. Through the window, Harry could see a large tree, its branches barren and waving in the breeze. On the other side of the room from the window was a desk with full bookshelves on both sides, probably the overflow from Hermione's room. Harry looked closer at the bookshelves and saw a wide variety of books, ranging from Doctor Seuss to Jane Austen.

Hermione came up next to him. "Do you like it?"

He grinned at her. "It's brilliant." His smile faltered. "But are you sure it's all for me? It's too much trouble for your parents to go through for just me."

Hermione glared at him, slapping the back of his head.

"Ow!" He reached up to rub his head, glaring at her. "What was that for?"

"For being an idiot," she huffed at him. "Of course it's all for you! Who else would it be for, Hedwig?"

"Well, no, but . . . my room isn't this nice at the Dursleys. Maybe I could just set up a cot in a cupboard somewhere. Maybe that would be better. And what if I get the room dirty!"

She stared at him. "Why would you want to sleep in a cupboard?"

"Well, that's what my room was at the Dursleys, when I was younger."

Hermione frowned. "Did they not have enough bedrooms?"

He shrugged. "When my Hogwarts letter came, they moved me into Dudley's second bedroom. They were worried that wizards were watching them."

"Harry, you shouldn't have been sleeping in a cupboard," Hermione said frankly.

He shrugged again. "It doesn't matter. I have a real room now."

* * *

Later that evening, while Harry was in his room sleeping, Hermione crept out of her room and into the living room, where her parents were sitting together reading.

"'Hermione?" Jean said, putting down her book. "It's late. You should be in bed."

"I know," Hermione said, "But I wanted to talk to you about some things Harry said earlier."

Jean frowned. "Come on over here, then." Hermione moved over and sat on the couch between her parents.

"So, what's troubling you?" Daniel asked.

"Well," Hermione began anxiously. "Harry seemed surprised that he had his own room."

Daniel shrugged. "Well, he probably had to share with someone else when he was younger- did you say he lived with his cousin?- and then at school, he would have been in a dorm with four other boys, so he may not have ever had his own room."

Hermione shook her head. "It's not that; he said that he used to sleep in a cupboard."

"A cupboard?" Jean asked. "Are you sure . . ."

"Yes! He said that he slept in the cupboard under the stairs. And it wasn't because his family didn't have enough rooms, Harry said that when his Hogwarts letter came, it was addressed to the Cupboard Under the Stairs, and his aunt and uncle got worried that witches were watching them, so they moved Harry to his cousin's second bedroom!"

Daniel and Jean looked at each. "He had a second bedroom? And they made Harry sleep in the cupboard?"

"Yes!" Hermione was close to tears. "I don't think that Harry's family likes him very much."

Jean nodded. "Thank you for telling us this, Hermione. We'll look into it. And if Harry says anything else that you think is unusual, please come tell us."

"Are you going to do something about it?"

Daniel shook his head. "Hermione, we don't really have proof that anything has happened. And, since you say that Harry is well-known in the wizarding world, getting him removed from his home could potentially be difficult. For now, all we can do is collect information." He pulled her close into a hug. "Now, go back to bed. We'll see you in the morning."

"Bright and early," Jean smiled.

"Muuum," Hermione groaned. "You always say that."

Jean and Daniel watched her walk back down the hall before turning to each other.

"Do you think . . ." Daniel asked hesitantly. "I don't know," Jean responded. "But did you see him flinch earlier?"

Daniel nodded. "We should watch his reactions tomorrow when we get close to him, see if he keeps flinching."

"I wonder how he'll react to his Christmas presents," Jean murmured thoughtfully. "How do you think he would react if we took him in for a medical examination?"

He shrugged. "There's no way to tell. But I think that should be our last resort."

She nodded. "Yes, you're probably right."

* * *

Harry moaned, turning over in bed. This was the most comfortable bed he had ever slept in. In his cupboard, he had only had a cot, and when he was moved to Dudley's second bedroom, the bed was hard and lumpy. While the Hogwarts beds were comfortable, he also had to deal with Ron's snoring and Neville talking in his sleep. He leaned back into his pillow, smiling. This was turning out to be the best Christmas ever.

There was a knock at the door. "Harry, dear?" he heard Jean say. "Wake up, it's time for breakfast!"

"What!" Harry gasped, jumping out of bed. "Already?" he glanced at the clock on the nightstand. It was eight in the morning. He rushed over to the door, opening it. "I'm so sorry, Mrs. Granger-"

"Harry, I thought I told you to call me Jean," she told him sternly.

"Jean," Harry repeated. "I'm so sorry I overslept; I meant to get up earlier to make breakfast." He looked at her worriedly.

Jean looked down at his anxious face. There were pillow lines on his cheek, and his eyes were still sleep dazed. His dark hair was tousled and messy. "Harry, you're our guest here, you don't need to get up early to make breakfast."

"What? But Aunt Petunia said-"

"Well, do you see Aunt Petunia anywhere?"

He looked down at the ground sheepishly. "No."

She smiled down at him. "That's right. Now go get dressed so we can eat."

His face lightened with a smile. "Thanks, Mrs. Granger- I mean Jean."

After she had left, Harry rushed off to the toilet, grabbing his clothes as he left the room. He showered and changed hurriedly, briefly running a comb through his hair and trotting out to the kitchen where Hermione and Jean were already sitting around the kitchen table while Daniel bustled around the kitchen. Harry hesitated, unsure of what to do.

Hermione looked up and saw him. "Harry, come sit next to me!" Harry looked at Jean uncertainly. She nodded. "You can sit next to Hermione if you would like to, Harry." He brightened and sat down, smiling at Hermione as he did so. "Good morning, Hermione," he said shyly.

Daniel bustled over with a plate stacked high with pancakes. "Food's done. This is a special recipe I got from my great-aunt. Dig in." He took everybody's plate and served out two pancakes to Hermione and Harry and three to himself and Jean. Harry looked aghast at his plate.

"Um, Daniel?"

"Yes, Harry?"

"It think that's too much food; I can't eat all that." Harry flinched away slightly as he spoke, staring down at the table.

Daniel looked down at the plate. "Are you sure, Harry? There's only two pancakes here, and you didn't eat dinner last night. Why don't you just try it? Maybe you're hungrier than you think."

"Ok," Harry nodded hesitantly. He picked up his fork and started eating. In the end, he could only manage one pancake. Daniel and Jean watched worriedly as he pushed the rest of his food away, looking nauseous.

After breakfast, Hermione spoke up. "So, daddy," she began. "Are we doing anything today?"

"Yes, of course," Daniel nodded. "We are doing many things today. We've eaten breakfast, showered, we're probably going to eat lunch later on, you'll read a few books, mum and I will take a few phone calls, we'll-"

"Dad!" she cut him off. "I mean, are we going to do anything _fun_ today. You know, as a family."

"Ohhhh. Well, why didn't you say so?"

She glared at him. "You know what I meant."

He chuckled. "Well, mum thought that maybe you would like to go back to that indoor swimming pool that you like, sort of as a back from school present."

"Yes!" Hermione squealed. "I love that place!"

"What?" Harry asked. He had watched the joking conversation between Hermione and her father in amazement. He could never imagine Dudley and Uncle Vernon talking and joking like that. Was this normal? If his dad were still alive, would he have been like this?

"What are you doing?" he asked again.

"Well, Harry, _we_ are going to go swimming." Daniel told him.

"Swimming?" Harry said nervously. "I've never been swimming before. I don't really like water. And I don't have swim trunks!"

"That's all right," Daniel said. "I'm sure that Hermione would love to teach you how to swim, and we can just stop at the store and pick up some trunks for you on the way to the pool."

"Ok," Harry said hesitantly, still looking slightly worried.

Hermione had had to dig up her old swimsuit and try it on to see if it still fit. It did, but it was a little tight. A few hours after breakfast, they were walking through the clothing section of a nearby store. "What did your old trunks look like?" Jean asked.

"Um, well, I've never had swimming trunks before."

"Well then, what's your favorite colour?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I don't have one."

She sighed. "Well, how about green? It matches your eyes."

"I guess that would be fine," Harry said hesitantly, biting his lips.

"Right." She grabbed a few pairs, holding them up to Harry for size. "Right, I think these might work." She held them out to him. "Why don't you go try them on, then come back out so we can see." Harry hesitantly took the trunks and went into the changing rooms. He came back a few minutes later with the first pair on, still wearing his shirt.

"Well, they look like they fit fine. How do you like them?" Daniel asked.

"They're fine."

"Are you sure? Do you want to try on the others in case there's one that you like more?"

Harry shook his head. "No, this one's fine."

"Well, ok then, as long as you like them . . ."

Harry nodded.

"Then why don't you go get dressed, and then we'll head over to the pool."

When Harry had come out of the changing room with his new trunks hanging over his arm and Daniel and Jean had paid for it while trying to assure Harry that they didn't mind buying it for him, the group quickly moved out of the store.

In the parking lot of the aquatics center, Hermione bounced excitedly in her seat. "You'll like this place, Harry. Swimming is so much fun! And they have a big pool with a diving board, and they even have a water slide! It'll be so exciting teaching you how to swim."

"If you say so, Hermione," Harry said hesitantly.

She jumped out of the car and grabbed his hand, pulling him toward the entrance.

"Hermione!" Daniel called. "Don't force Harry to do anything that he's not comfortable with, especially since he doesn't know how to swim yet."

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, dad, I know."

After Jean paid the entrance fee, the group quickly split up to go into the changing rooms. Harry looked nervously around the changing room. He had never been in a place like this with so many other people. When he was showering at Hogwarts, he always made sure that no one else was in the room by showering at strange times. He felt a hand on his shoulder and jumped. "It's all right, Harry, it's just me," Daniel said. "If you finish changing before me, then why don't you wait out here for me, ok?"

Harry nodded, twisting his hands nervously in his shirt.

A few minutes later, Daniel was already changed and waiting. "Harry? You alright in there?"

There was a pause, then a soft, choked response. "I- I don't know, I don't think I can do this, I can't-" he ended with a muffled sob.

Daniel knocked on the stall door. "Harry? Can I come in? Can you open the door for me?"

The door opened slowly, revealing Harry's tear-stained face.

"Harry, what's wro-" Daniel broke off when he saw Harry. He swallowed, crouching down to look Harry in the face. "Harry, what happened?"

Harry had already changed into his trunks, leaving his chest bare. He was horribly skinny and gaunt, his ribs poking through the pale skin of his chest. The worst part, however, was the scars dotting his chest, shoulders, and stomach.

"I- I'm not supposed to tell anyone," Harry choked out, half whispering. "How am I supposed to go out there like this?"

"Harry, who did this to you?"

Harry shook his head. "I'm not supposed to tell anyone," he repeated.

Daniel nodded soothingly. "That's fine, you don't have to tell me that. But can you tell me who told you not to tell anyone?"

"Uncle Vernon." Harry whispered. "And- and Professor Dumbledore. He said- I asked him, when I got to Hogwarts, if I could live there for the entire year. He said that I had to stay with my aunt, that it was the best place for me. He told me to not mess it up."

Daniel's mouth tightened. "Did he really." He stood up. "Why don't you change back into your normal clothes, Harry, there's been a change in plans, I don't think we'll be able to go swimming today."

"Did- did I ruin it?" Harry asked. "I always ruin things. Will Hermione hate me now?"

Daniel smiled gently, resting his hand on Harry's head, noticing that he didn't flinch away this time. "No, Harry, Hermione won't hate you. She might be a bit disappointed at first, but she'll get over it. And we can always come back later. Now why don't you go change back into your clothes, and maybe we can go eat at Hermione's favorite restaurant to make up for not being able to swim."

Harry brightened slightly. "Ok. Maybe if we do, then she won't hate me!"

Daniel smiled sadly. "Oh, Harry, she won't hate you."


	4. Chapter 4

Harry and Daniel walked out of the changing rooms to the hall where Hermione and Jean were waiting for them, already dressed in their swimming suits.

"Hey, why aren't you guys dressed yet?" Hermione asked, frowning.

"Something's come up," Daniel said quietly. "I don't think we can go swimming here today, Hermione. Maybe later."

"What?" Hermione whinged. "Why not?"

Harry winced, looking down at the ground. Daniel rested his hand on Harry's shoulder comfortingly. "We just can't, Hermione." He tilted his head meaningfully at Harry.

"Oh," Hermione realized, looking carefully at Harry. "Well, that's fine then." She smiled at Harry, reaching out to grab his hand as they walked out.

Back at the house, Daniel shooed Hermione and Harry into the library. "Mione, why don't you show Harry your favorite books, then we can go out to that pizza place that you like for lunch, ok?" Hermione nodded and grabbed Harry by the hand, pulling him after her.

"What happened, Daniel?" Jean asked after the children had left.

"I found proof."

"Proof? Proof of- oh, proof that Harry was being abused?"

He nodded. "He has bruising on his chest. Maybe elsewhere too, I couldn't tell."

Jean nodded grimly. "Are you going to contact Glen?"

He nodded. "That would be the best way to go about it. I'll go call him now."

* * *

A few hours later Daniel and Jean were standing in the office of Doctor Glen Pierce while Harry sat next to Hermione on the other side of the room while they talked. Glen was a good friend of theirs who was also a pediatrician for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

"Well, your suspicions were right," he said softly. "From the physical evidence, it's clear that Harry was abused."

Jean hesitated. "What kind of physical evidence?"

"He has scarring on his chest and back; you said you saw those. He's suffering from malnutrition and has scalding burns on his forearms. There is evidence of broken bones that weren't set properly. And that's not even mentioning the possible mental and verbal abuse."

Daniel's mouth tightened. "Those- how could someone even do that to a child? How do we go about getting custody of Harry?"

"Well," Pierce frowned, flipping through some papers. "You are still approved as foster parents from when you applied a few years back, and I can put in a good word for you. It helps that he's friends with Hermione. But first, we have to deal with his family. Do you have their names and address?"

Jean frowned, thinking. "I know he lives with his aunt and uncle; he's mentioned them before, and not good things, either. I'm sorry, but I don't really know anything other than that."

Pierce nodded. "That's fine. Do you think Harry would be willing to tell us?"

Daniel shrugged. "One way to find out." He walked over to Harry. "Harry?" he asked, kneeling down so he could look him in the eyes. "Could you tell me where your aunt and uncle live?"

Harry flinched away from him, tears filling his eyes. "I'm sorry, he whimpered.

"Harry?" Daniel asked again. "Harry, what's wrong?"

"I'm sorry, I'll be good, I swear, please don't send me back."

"Harry, we're not going to send you back. We need to talk to your family so that you can stay with us."

Harry looked carefully at him. "What do you mean?"

"Harry, we want you to live with us."

Harry brightened a bit. "That's fine," he nodded. "I can clean, and cook, and I can weed the garden, and do anything that you need."

Daniel shook his head. "No, Harry, we don't want you as a- a servant, we want you to be our son."

Harry stared at him in shock. "Your son? You mean- you're not just saying that, are you?" he faltered.

"No, Harry, we mean it," Daniel smiled. "And I know that Hermione has always wanted a brother."

"A little brother," Hermione put in. Harry glared at her. "I'm not that much younger than you are," he whinged.

Daniel chuckled, pulling Harry into his arms. Harry was stiff for a moment before relaxing and putting his thin arms around Daniel's neck, burying his face in his shoulder while he tried to hide his tears. Daniel waiting until Harry had calmed down before pulling away slightly. "Harry? Where do your aunt and uncle live?"

"Number 4 Privet Drive," Harry whispered. "And their names are Petunia and Vernon Dursley."

Daniel nodded. "Thank you, Harry."

* * *

A few days later Arabella Figg was getting out of her car, when she noticed the ruckus over at Number 4 Privet Drive. "What on earth?" she muttered. There were police cars all along the road by the house, and a group of officers were walking out of the open front door, talking together. The Dursleys were nowhere in sight. She hurried over to the other house. "Excuse me," she said to one of the officers. "What's going on? Did something happen to the Dursleys?"

"They've been arrested," the officer growled. "Arrested?" Arabella gasped. "Whatever for?"

"Child abuse," the other woman said grimly. Arabella's gaze grew hard. "Child abuse? Did you lot finally decide to act? Do you know how many times I've reported them?"

"Wait," the officer frowned. "You've reported them before?"

"Yes," Arabella nodded. "It's positively shameful, the way they'd treat poor Harry."

The officer shook her head. "We never got any reports about them. They were discovered when the child went to a friend's house. Who did you report them to?"

"One of his teachers, and an old friend of Harry's parents."

The police officer did a double take. "His parents? You knew his parents?"

Arabella nodded. "Not very well, mind you, but my sister went to school with Harry's grandmother."

"Do you know of any other family members?"

Arabella shook her head. "No close family members, no. Both James and Charlus were only children." She hesitated. "Harry's legal guardian, the one appointed by his parents, is in prison. I think there are a few distant cousins."

"Would you mind talking to the boy's new guardians? I heard that they've been trying to find members of Harry's family."

Arabella paused, trying to decide how she should respond. Dumbledore had told her not to get too involved with poor Harry, and to not tell him about magic or that she was a squib. But Dumbledore had also told her that he would deal with the abuse problem, and he hadn't. Instead, he had ignored it. She nodded decisively. "Yes. I will."

* * *

Andromeda Tonks sat down at a table in the tea shop on Charing Cross Road across from Arabella Figg.

"Alright, who are you and why did you need to talk to me so urgently?"

Arabella sipped her tea hesitantly.

"I am the squib that Albus Dumbledore assigned to watch over Harry Potter."

"So why are you contacting me?"

Arabella hesitated. "Some . . . issues . . . have come up, and it seems that the boy's current guardians are not . . . not the best. They have been arrested, and the muggle authorities have placed Harry with a muggle family. Since I am a squib, and don't really know enough to help them, and once the ministry or Dumbledore finds out about . . . well, it would be bad."

"So you want me to help Harry Potter and his muggle guardians navigate the wizarding world. Why me?"

"You are related to him, albeit distantly. You are a pureblood, but your husband is a muggleborn, so you can see both sides. And you are a well-respected lawyer who doesn't seem to like Dumbledore."

Andromeda looked at Arabella over the top of her cup. "Why this distrust of Dumbledore? You said he was the one to tell you to watch over Harry. You must have trusted him at one point. What changed your opinion?"

Arabella hesitated. "Harry's family . . . was abusive. I told Dumbledore this repeatedly, and he would only say that it would be dealt with, but nothing happened. And I suspect that he obliviated the muggle authorities when I reported them."

Andromeda nodded. "Those are all good reasons. Very well, I will speak with them. What information do you have about the situation?" Arabella leaned forward seriously. "Well . . ."

* * *

The Grangers and Harry had just gotten back from their second check-up visit to Doctor Pierce, when there was a knock at the door. "I wonder who that could be," Daniel mused, frowning. He stood up to open the door. "

"Mrs. Figg!" Harry gasped from behind Daniel. She smiled at him. "Hello, Harry, how are you today?"

"I'm doing great!" he beamed at her. "This is Daniel, he's my friend Hermione's dad. He said that I'm going to live with them now!"

Arabella smiled sadly. "I hope so, Harry." She looked at Daniel. "May I come in? I wanted to talk with you about Harry."

Daniel hesitated slightly before nodding in affirmation.

He sat Arabella in the living room to talk to Jean while he drew Harry aside.

"Harry, how do you know her?"

"She lived close to the Dursleys. And whenever they would go somewhere, like to a restaurant or something they'd leave me with her. I liked her. She was nice. She would always make me dinner, and let me play with her nephew's toys. She said that it was our little secret, and that I shouldn't tell the Dursleys." He faltered, worried. "Do you think it's alright that I told you?"

Daniel smiled in relief. "That's fine, Harry. Now, why don't I go talk to Mrs. Figg while you go play with Hermione."

When Daniel walked into the living room, Jean looked questioning towards Daniel. He nodded slightly. She smiled in relief and turned back to talking to Mrs. Figg, this time with a friendlier smile on her face.

After a few minutes of small talk, Mrs. Figg brought up the purpose of her visit. "So, how much do the two of you know about the wizarding world?"

They tensed, looking surprised. "Are- are you a witch?"

She smiled regretfully. "No, I'm not. I'm what is called a squib, sort of like the opposite of your daughter. I was born into a wizarding family, but I have no magic."

"It wasn't a coincidence that you were living next to Harry, was it," Jean said.

Arabella shook her head. "Has your daughter told you about Harry's history?"

"Just bits and pieces. But we know that he is rather famous."

Arabella nodded, shifting slightly in her seat. "Yes. He is the only known person to ever survive an attack by the leader of a magical terrorist group. But since both of his parents were killed in the attack, he was sent to live with his closest relatives: Petunia and Vernon Dursley. Since there were fears that the members of the terrorist group who were still running free would try and find him, I was asked to move close to his relative's house."

"Placing him there was a horrible idea," Daniel grumbled. "Weren't there any other family members that he could have gone to?"

"Well," Arabella hesitated. "His godmother was petitioning for custody of Harry, but then she and her family were attacked. And his godfather is not an option; he's imprisoned with a life sentence. But Harry does have a distant relative who is willing to meet with you to talk about his inheritance and the legalities concerning adoption in the wizarding world."

Daniel and Jean glanced at each other. "That does sound like a good idea. When would be the best opportunity to meet with them?"

"She said that this Saturday afternoon would be the best time."

Jean nodded. "That works. Should we meet somewhere else, or could she come here?"

"Andromeda- that's her name, Andromeda Tonks- she said that she would be willing to come to your house. Does around three in the afternoon work for you?"

Jean nodded. "Yes, that's fine. We will see the both of you then."

After a quick goodbye hug with Harry, Arabella Figg left.

* * *

That Saturday afternoon, Harry paced anxiously in the Granger's kitchen. "When did they say they were going to be here? Are they late? Maybe they changed their minds. What time is it?"

Jean rolled her eyes slightly. "Harry, calm down, I'm sure that they are just running late. They'll be here soon."

There was a knock at the door. "See? They were just running late. Now why don't you run and fetch Daniel and Hermione while I answer the door."

Harry dashed off. Jean moved to the door, opening it to the sight of Arabella Figg's dowdy face and the woman standing next to her with a book in her hand. She was tall with dark hair and an almost haughty look on her face.

"Hello," Jean said cheerfully, standing to the side and holding the door open. "Won't you come in?"

"Mrs. Granger, this is Mrs. Tonks, Andromeda Tonks," Arabella introduced her.

"Oh, please, you can call me Andromeda," she said. Her voice had a rich, warm tone, despite her imposing appearance. They shook hands, and Jean led them both into the living room. "Daniel!" Jean called. "Harry's cousin is here!"

There was the sound of running feet down the hallway, and then Hermione burst into the room. "Hi!" she exclaimed. "I'm Hermione! Are you- oohh!" she trailed off, distracted. "Did you bring books? What are they about? Can I read them?" she twisted her head so she could read the title of the book that Andromeda held in her hand.

"I'm afraid that it's not up to me to say whether you can read this book or not, Miss Hermione, since they belong to Harry." Andromeda smiled at her.

"Me?" Harry asked tentatively from the doorway. "Those are for me?"

"That's right, Harry," she said gently. "These books are about your family. You have a vast and diverse inheritance from your parents."

"They are?"

"Yes," she nodded. "Would you like to look at them?"

He nodded slowly and moved into the room. Andromeda sat down on the sofa and patted the cushion next to her invitingly. Harry sat down hesitantly beside her. Andromeda opened the book on her lap, flipping towards the end so she could point out his father and grandparents. She glanced up at Jean and Daniel. "Harry, why don't you look through this with Hermione while Arabella and I talk to Jean and Daniel, is that alright?"

Harry nodded, staring down at the moving photos of his family in amazement. Hermione squealed and jumped onto the couch next to him, leaning over to look over his shoulder. Andromeda stood up. "We can talk in the kitchen while the kids are busy," Daniel suggested.

In the kitchen, they all sat down around the table, and Andromeda began. "So, the thing I should probably start with is Harry's legal guardian. The Dursleys were Harry's ministry appointed guardians, but not the guardians that his parents had named; that would have been either his godfather or godmother. Since James and Lily's will was never located and his godparents were deemed unacceptable for various reasons, he was sent to his closest living relatives. In normal cases like this, a visitor from Wizarding Child Services is required to make frequent check-ups, at least for the first year. This never happened."

"So Harry was sent to his abusive relatives and no one ever checked on him to make sure that he was alright."

Andromeda nodded grimly. "Yes. And the problem with this is that it will be difficult for the two of you to gain custody of him if you go through the normal channels. Albus Dumbledore is highly respected, even with the recent fiasco that happened under his watch, and he seems convinced that the best place for Harry is with his aunt. And while it might be simpler to get him removed from the picture if we went public with the abuse, that would mean a media circus, which would be bad for Harry. It's possible that Dumbledore is already aware that the Dursleys have been arrested for child abuse, but I think that the fallout from the troll attack has been keeping him occupied."

"Is there an easier way? What do you think the best thing to do is?"

"If we can get the Minister of Magic and the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to both declare Petunia Dursley an incompetent guardian and to sign over the care of Harry to the two of you, then we would be in the clear."

"So how difficult will that be?"

"Well, the Head of the DMLE is Amelia Bones, and she is a friend of mine from school, so getting her agreement will likely be no problem. The issue will be the minister." She smirked. "Fortunately for us, Minister Fudge has been taking bribes from Lucius Malfoy for years, and Malfoy's son was injured in the troll incident, so he'll be looking for revenge against Dumbledore. I think I could manage to persuade him to influence Fudge for us."

Daniel frowned. "How do you know that he'll be looking for revenge? Do you know him?"

Andromeda's face tightened. "He is my brother-in-law." Daniel started to say something else, then saw her expression and changed his mind and the subject. "Now, you said something about an inheritance?"

She nodded. "His parents left Harry quite a sum of money. The Potters were very well off. He may not have full access to it until he turns seventeen, and as his guardians you will be entitled to a set amount each year for his keep. His account is currently being managed by a goblin at Gringotts Bank, and I suggest that you keep it that way as long as you stay on the goblins' good side. It keeps his money protected, and the goblins are good at investing."

"What about schooling? Is he fine at Hogwarts where he is now?"

Andromeda hesitated. "I'm not sure that Hogwarts is the best long-term option, but I advise that you leave it at that for right now. I'll inform Minerva about what is going on."

"She's the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts, right?"

She nodded. "So, any other questions?"


	5. Chapter 5

Harry cried out in his sleep, moaning in pain as he twisted in his dream. He felt a hand on his shoulder and cried out in fear. "Shh, Harry, everything's fine," he heard a gentle voice say.

"Mum?" he asked in a small voice. There was a pause. "No, Harry, it's Jean," the voice said. Harry sat up, pulling his legs up to his chest and clutching them tightly as a light hand began softly running through his hair. He looked around the dark room and could see the shadowy figure of Jean standing next to the bed. "Harry, do you want to talk about it?"

He shook his head silently. She sat down on the bed next to him and pulled him against her side, letting his head rest against her shoulder. "Were you dreaming about your uncle?" she asked.

He shook his head. "The troll," he whispered. "Do you think Professor Snape's going to be alright?"

She sighed heavily. "I don't know, Harry. I don't really know anything about what's going on in the magical world. Maybe we can ask Andromeda tomorrow." She paused. "Hermione said that he wasn't very nice to you at school. Do you want him to be alright?"

He nodded. "I don't think he liked me very much. But, there was this one time, a few days before Halloween, that-" he started crying again.

"Calm down, Harry, it's alright," Jean soothed. "What happened?"

"Some older students found me alone," Harry sobbed. "They- they were making fun of my clothes, they said that since they were big enough for an elephant that they were going to give me the ears and nose to match. It's not my fault, the only clothes I ever had were Dudley's, and all of my new school clothes were dirty 'cause I spilled something on them during Potions, and they just started- they were scaring me, but then Professor Snape showed up. He made them leave. He even took points from them, and one of them was a Slytherin!"

"That was very nice of him, Harry, but I'm not sure what you're talking about with your clothes. I think that they fit you very well. Are you sure-" she began gently.

Harry brightened up slightly. "Oh, these weren't _those_ clothes. Professor Snape did something to them to make them fit me better. He said that even though I'm an arrogant little brat, I still deserved clothes that fit." He furrowed his brow. "I don't think he meant for me to hear it. And I- I accidently told him a few things about them- the Dursleys. And he said that he would talk to Professor McGonagall about it. I think he just pretends to be really mean." He frowned, his little brow furrowed. "I don't know why, though."

Jean smoothed his hair down gently. "I don't know why either, Harry. Maybe he's just not a very happy person."

"The other students don't really like him," Harry said hesitantly.

"Well, what do you think about him?"

Harry wrinkled his nose. "I don't know. He's not very nice to me or Hermione. And the other students say bad things about him." Harry hesitated. "But the Dursleys used to say bad things about me, and they weren't true. So maybe he's not as bad as people say."

"Wasn't he hurt trying to save some students from the troll?" Jean asked. "Yeah," Harry nodded. "Well, that was a brave thing to do, wasn't it?" Harry nodded again. "Do you think anyone's visited him since the accident?"

"I don't know. Do you want to go visit him? Maybe after Andromeda takes us to the bank tomorrow?"

Harry hesitated, biting his lip. "Yeah, I guess so." His hands twisted the blanket in his lap nervously.

"Do you think maybe Professor Snape would like a present? Maybe candy, or flowers?"

Harry giggled at the thought of someone getting Snape flowers. "I don't think so. Maybe a book?"

Jean smiled. "Alright, why don't I let you and Hermione pick out one for him then, ok?"

* * *

A few hours later, Harry and the Grangers met Andromeda Tonks in the Leaky Cauldron. After they were all seated around a table, Jean spoke first. "So why did you want to meet us here today?"

"Well, I thought that we could make a visit to Gringotts, the wizarding bank, together. It's possible that James and Lily either left their will in their vault or made their account manager the executor of it, and we also need to get an accounting of what all is in Harry's vaults."

"What do you mean? Isn't there just money in my vault? That's all I could see when I was here with Hagrid."

"You should have more than one vault, Harry," Andromeda responded. "There's likely a vault primarily for money, and a second storage one, with family heirlooms, and where they put everything from your house after- well, after the attack. So," she said with a reassuring smile. "Are you ready, Harry?"

"Yep!" he said cheerfully. "Do you really think that the goblins have my parents' will?"

Andromeda shrugged. "They might. Unless they left their will with someone else."

"Why would they do that?" Harry asked. "I thought that Gringotts was the safest place to put anything."

"Well," Andromeda began. "At the time, there were rumours that You-Know-Who was trying to get the goblins to side with him, so Lily and James may have left their will with a lawyer, or someone else that they trusted. But since there's a possibility that it's here and since we need to get the information about your vault anyway, I thought that we could all make a trip of it."

They walked through the large bronze doors and up to the counter. Harry looked around in amazement at the marble pillars. Despite the fact that he had been here before, it was still awe inspiring. "Excuse me," Andromeda began. The goblin looked up. "Yes?"

"We would like to speak with the account manager for the Potter vaults."

"May I see some identification?" The goblin asked. Andromeda beckoned to Harry. "Harry, come up here, he needs to see your wand."

Harry moved in front of the counter, hesitantly placing his wand on top of the marble. "Why?"

"They need to make sure that you're allowed to access the Potter vaults, and since your wand is keyed to your magical signature, it's all that you need to identify yourself."

"Oh."

The goblin inspected the wand, poking the tip through a large metal circle inscribed with runes that was suspended over the desk. The goblin nodded and handed the wand back. "Gimaac!" he called. Another goblin came running over. "Show them to the small meeting room." He turned back to Andromeda. "The Potter manager will meet you there."

In the small meeting room, Andromeda pulled out a chair and sat down around a large, rectangular stone table. The Grangers and Harry hesitantly did the same. "Now, the goblins are really finicky and can get mad rather angry, so I need you two to be on your best behavior," she warned Harry and Hermione. Hermione looked hurt that she had to be reminded. Harry just nodded.

An elderly-looking goblin entered the room. "Greetings, Mr. Potter. I am Bogrod, and I am your account manager. What do you need?"

Harry turned to Andromeda for help. "We would like to know if you have James and Lily Potter's will in your possession," she said.

The goblin looked serious. "Unfortunately, their will was not left within the possession of this bank. According to the information that we were given by the late Mr. Potter, their will was left in the care of Albus Dumbledore as the executor of the will. Upon receiving the news of the Potters' unfortunate passing, we contacted Mr. Dumbledore regarding the will. He said that he had misplaced it."

Daniel's eyebrow rose. "He said that he lost the will?"

Bogrod nodded. "That is what he told us."

"And there's no copy anywhere?"

"No. When we asked James Potter about keeping a copy in our vaults, he informed us that he had complete faith in Mr. Dumbledore."

Daniel snorted. "Well, that was a horrible idea," he grumbled under his breath. Jean jabbed him with her elbow and he went silent.

"So as things stand now, what are the contents of the Potter vaults?" Andromeda asked.

Bogrod shuffled his papers. "Currently, the main vault holds 74,329 galleons, 23,204 sickles, and 7,941 knuts. In the storage vault is what could be salvaged from the contents of the Potters' home, including furniture, books, clothing, and personal items. There are no restrictions on what can be drawn out by Mr. Potter."

Jean winced, watching Harry closely. It would undoubtedly be difficult for him to sort through everything. "Harry?" she asked. "What do you want done with the things in the storage vault?"

Harry looked thoughtful. "I don't really know. What do you suggest?"

"Well," Jean said hesitantly. "You could hire someone to sort through everything. Maybe place the furniture aside until you have need of it, maybe donate some of the clothing. You could take some of the books out and use them for school. The personal items, you could ask someone who knew your parents about the history behind them."

Harry nodded. "I guess that sound alright. Could you separate things out for me?" he asked Bogrod.

The ancient goblin nodded. "We would be willing to do that for a small fee of fifty galleons. Where would you like all the items placed? Or would you like to see the vault as it is now before we go through it?"

Harry nodded. "I'd like that," he said softly.

Less than an hour later they stood in front of the vault door. The goblin reached out and slowly opened the vault door with a groan.

Harry stepped inside and peered around. The storage vault was large, with one side taken up by furniture stacked haphazardly together and the other side filled with bookshelves and a few trunks.

"Everything from Godric's Hollow was placed in here the day after the attack," Bogrod said.

"Godric's Hollow?" Harry asked, his face pale.

"Where you lived with your parents. The entire magical world was in disarray after You-Know-Who disappeared, and people were beginning to invade and loot your house, so we moved quickly to get everything out of there before most of the looters hit. It was one of the few instructions that James Potter left us should anything happen to him."

Hermione walked over to the books and ran her hand over them. Daniel and Jean followed her, reading the titles of the books over her shoulder. Harry moved over to the furniture, his face pale. He moved past a large mahogany table and gasped. "What is it, Harry?" Hermione asked, walking over to him.

"It- I think it's my old cot," Harry said. He began to cry softly. He reached out a hand to caress the smooth wood. It looked old and was large and well-made out of a light-colored wood, with the figures of a stag and doe on the headboard, standing over a small fawn. A small blue blanket still lay on top, with a red and gold dummy caught in its folds.

"Oh, Harry," Hermione said, reaching out and wrapping her arms around him. He stood still a moment before putting his arms around her as well and crying into her shoulder. "I wonder if they chose Gryffindor colors on purpose for the dummy," he murmured.

"Harry," Daniel spoke up. "Look at this."

Harry pulled away from Hermione, wiping his face on his sleeve. "What is it?"

"It looks like it's your mum's diary. It has her name on the inside front page."

"Really?" Harry peered over Daniel's arm. Daniel handed the open book to him. "You're right, it is," Harry said in amazement. "Can I see?" Hermione asked, trying to get a glimpse over Harry's shoulder. "Not unless Harry says so, Hermione," Daniel warned. "It's personal."

Hermione looked at Harry with a questioning, hopeful look on her face. "I- I think I'd like to keep it to myself," Harry said, clutching the book to his chest. "At least for now. If- if you don't mind, Hermione." Her face lowered slightly. "Oh. Ok, then. That's fine."

Hermione returned to looked at books while Harry sat down on a nearby chair, absent mindedly moving the box that was on top of it to the floor. He started flipping through the diary. A few minutes passed like this, with Hermione glancing over at Harry in curiosity every now and then.

Suddenly, Harry gasped in shock. "What is it?" Hermione asked. "What does she say?"

"I- It's not something that she wrote it's- this photo." He held it up. "It just fell out of the pages."

"Well, I can't see it from all the way over here," Hermione huffed, walking over to where he sat. "What is-" she gasped as well. "Is that- Professor Snape? And your mum? With you?"

Harry nodded dumbly. "Yeah, I think it is."

The picture showed a young woman, sitting under a tree in with bright sunshine glancing off her crimson hair, throwing her head back and laughing while a black-haired toddler tugged at a young, disgruntled looking Severus Snape's hair.

"Well, he's about the same age," Hermione said hesitantly.

"For what?"

"To have gone to school with your parents."

Harry stared at her. "Wait, how do you know how old Snape is?"

"Professor Snape," she corrected crossly. "And I know because he's in one of my potions books because of a few potions that he invented, and they have a small biography of him."

"But what's he doing with my mum? He hates me!"

Hermione shrugged sympathetically. "I don't know, Harry. You'll have to ask him."

"Ask who?" Andromeda asked, coming up behind them. Harry wordlessly handed her the photo. "Oh, yes!" she said. "They were rather good friends at school. They were quite a few years below me, but I still remember it. Some of the other Slytherins objected to it rather strongly, the way that Snape was associating with a muggleborn."

"But he hates me!" Harry repeated. Andromeda nodded thoughtfully. "If I recall, Snape clashed with James, so that may be why he doesn't like you. But he was good friends with Lily. They lived close to each other and grew up together, I think."

"He's a muggleborn?" Hermione asked in surprise.

"No, half-blood. But he was raised in the muggle world."

"Really?" Hermione said. "I had no idea."

Harry set the photo next to him on the chair and turned back to the book. "I wonder if there's anything else about Professor Snape in here," he wondered aloud.

"You know," Jean said hesitantly. "We did talk about visiting him. If you still want to do that, then you can ask him some questions about your mum."

Harry looked doubtful. "I don't know, Jean, he _really_ doesn't like me."

"You said this morning that he helped you that one time at school," she said. "So he can't be all that bad. Maybe he's lonely." Harry still looked doubtful, but he glanced down at the photo and his gaze softened. "Yeah. I guess I would like that. I just want to know more about my mum and dad."

* * *

Alone in his study in Malfoy Manor, Lucius sat in a straight-backed chair, staring into the smoldering fireplace in front of him.

He glanced down at the book sitting on top of the desk beside him. He had given his loyalty and had nearly given his life to the Dark Lord, expecting to become one of his most powerful advisors, with the wealth and power that he had always wanted. Instead, he had been told to torture and kill muggles who weren't even worth the time it took to exterminate them. He had been arrested and forced to stand trial like a common peasant before he had taken matters into his own hands and bribed and blackmailed his way out.

The Dark Lord had claimed to be the Heir of Slytherin, but all he had been was an insane wizard who acted more Gryffindor than he did Slytherin. A full out war was not the way to change the world to fit the Slytherin ideals.

Lucius reached out and grabbed the diary that was given to him to protect, turning it over in his hands. Perhaps it was time to fully separate himself from You-Know-Who. He had nothing to gain in waiting for the return of his old master. And with the attack on his son, he had the power to bring down the great Dumbledore, leaving a power vacuum behind that he could take advantage of. He came to a decision and stood, the diary still in his hands. It was time for him to break free from the chains that still held him down and rise from the ashes. Almost like a phoenix, he thought to himself, smirking.

He set the diary down on the ground and took a step back. "Avada kedavra," he said coldly, his wand pointing at the innocent-looking book on the ground. There was a shrill scream as the bolt of green light hit the diary and it seemed to shrivel up, a blackened scorch mark appearing in the middle of the page.

"Dobby!" Lucius snapped. "Clear up this mess!" He left the room without looking back.


	6. Chapter 6

"Lucius!" Andromeda called, hurrying after the tall blond man. He stopped and turned to her. "Andromeda," he acknowledged stiffly. "What are you doing at St Mungo's?"

"I'm visiting Severus Snape."

"Really?" he raised an eyebrow. "Whatever for?"

She shook her head. "It doesn't matter; that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. I just wanted to thank you for talking to the minister about the custody case."

He nodded, smirking slightly. "It was worth it to get one over Dumbledore. A word of warning, however. I have spoken to Rita about the situation."

She stared at him in shock. "Rita Skeeter? But then everyone will know!"

He nodded. "It would be better to announce the change in Potter's guardians now. If it were discovered later and you had attempted to hide it, then the fallout would be worse. The announcement will be gradual. After the story about the troll, Dumbledore's popularity is already decreasing, and it will be followed up by a few stories about what the aurors discovered at the school. Then a story about our esteemed headmaster's past." He smiled. "I have had a few of my people doing some digging. With what they found, it won't be difficult to completely remove him from power. Then we will announce the change. Make it seem as if it were the result of Dumbledore's questionable reaction to the troll in the school, and the legality of his placement of Harry is being questioned."

She nodded hesitantly. "That sounds like it could work. A word of warning, though. Daniel and Jean have been talking about-"

"Who?"

She glared at him. "Daniel and Jean Granger. The couple that has custody of Harry Potter now, thanks to your help."

"Oh, them."

"Yes, _them._ Anyway, they've been talking about Hogwarts, and other schooling options. I don't know if they've made a decision yet, but. . ."

He nodded. "My thanks for the warning."

"I just hope that your idea with Skeeter will work," she said carefully.

"Oh, believe me, it will. I have very little doubt. Just make sure that Potter realizes what I have done for him," he warned.

"Lucius, he's still just a child. Perhaps when he's a bit older, we'll tell him."

"Good," he nodded. "Having the support of the Boy-Who-Lived could be extremely beneficial."

"Well, anyway, thank you." She turned to leave.

"Andromeda," he said resignedly, calling her back. "Narcissa . . . would like to ask you to join her for lunch tomorrow."

She stared at him. "Don't want to let the opportunity to get close to Harry Potter get away from you?"

He raised an elegant brow. "Or perhaps my wife simply wishes to reconnect with her sister. Are you always this cynical?"

"Only with former death eaters." She hesitated. "I'll think about. I'll send her an owl when I decide."

He nodded. "I shall inform her of your response." He turned to leave and continued down the hall.

* * *

Lucius walked hurriedly down the corridor of St Mungo's, his face grim. He had just been to visit his son. He had not yet woken, but the healers were confident that he would do so soon. It had been somewhat disturbing for him to see his son like that, pale and still on the bed and needing spells to feed and clean him. He turned the corner, his cloak flaring out behind him, nearly running over Augusta Longbottom.

"Excuse me," he muttered, continuing on. "Mr. Malfoy, just a moment," the elderly woman said. Lucius stopped walking and turned to face her. "Dowager Longbottom," he acknowledged. "What is it?"

"I merely wanted to tell you that you have my support in whatever actions you take against Dumbledore," she said grimly.

Lucius' eyes widened in surprise. "This is unexpected. What changed your opinion about him? Was it merely the troll, or something else?"

"Have you spoken with Madame Bones yet? It's positively shameful what they found!"

"And do you find the recent events to be dangerous enough to surpass Albus Dumbledore's fame, then?"

She nodded grimly. "I have half a mind to remove Neville from Hogwarts if something is not done. That school's practically a death trap!" She hesitated. "Anyway, that's all I wanted to tell you. That you will have my support. But," she stuck her finger in his face threateningly. "If I ever think that our goals are no longer compatible, then I will remove my support and I will not hesitate to destroy you. Is that clear?"

He nodded. "Perfectly."

A bit later, Lucius sat down in the chair by the side of Severus Snape's hospital bed. "Please tell me you're here to break me out," Severus deadpanned.

Lucius chuckled. "No, Severus, I'm afraid that I'm not. No, I need to speak with you. Do you mind?" he asked, raising his wand and gesturing at the door.

Severus raised a brow at him. "No. Go ahead." He watched as Lucius cast a muffliato at the door.

"Why was my dear sister-in-law visiting you?"

"Getting right to the point, aren't you?"

"Just answer the question," he huffed.

"Apparently Potter wants to visit me," Severus sniffed.

"Really? Whatever for?"

"How am I supposed to know? Is there a reason you're here or did you just want to interrogate me?" he snapped.

"What do you know about Quirinus Quirrell?"

He sighed. "You really are here just to interrogate me. He used to be the Muggle Studies professor. Went on a sabbatical in Albania, came back and became the Defense teacher. Considering his talent for dealing with trolls, I think he is the prime suspect for the attack. Minerva agrees with me on that. Why do you ask?"

Lucius shifted in his seat. "Have you heard about the inspection that the aurors performed on the school?"

Severus nodded.

Lucius continued. "Before they did, I conducted my own inspection. I met Quirrell." He paused. "Did you know?"

"For Merlin's sake, Lucius, quit dancing around the subject and just tell me what happened," Severus grumbled.

"He was possessed by the shade of the Dark Lord."

Severus stared up at him. "What? Are you sure?"

"It spoke to me, Severus. There was a _face_ on the back of his head."

"Was?"

Lucius' eyes narrowed as he eyed Severus carefully. He had never been completely sure of where the other man's loyalty truly was. At times, during the height of the war, he had seemed to be the Dark Lord's staunchest supporter, but then he would remember Severus' friendship with the Evans girl, and his lack of pure blood. If Lucius told him what he had done, would he support him or turn against him in support of the Dark Lord? He came to a quick decision.

He leaned forward seriously. "You know, Severus, I have always felt that your heart was never completely with our former Master." He watched Severus' expression carefully. "Where do your loyalties truly lie?"

"I am a Slytherin. My loyalties lie with myself."

Lucius stared at him for a few more moments before nodding. "I killed Quirrell."

Severus blinked at him in surprise. "And the shade?"

He responded coldly, "I destroyed it." He watched Severus' expression carefully.

Severus nodded slowly. "So the danger has been removed?"

Lucius hesitated. "Do you recall the . . . object that the Dark Lord entrusted to my care?"

Severus nodded. "A diary, wasn't it?"

"Yes. And are you familiar with the concept of a horcrux?"

Severus started to shake his head before he stopped. "It does ring a bell, I think, but I don't really know anything about what it is. But considering the topic at hand, I would assume that it is some form of dark magic."

Lucius nodded grimly. "It was surprisingly difficult to find information on them, but I finally managed to locate an old scroll in my family's library. A horcrux is an object in which a person has concealed part of their soul after splitting if from the main part through deliberately committed murder followed by further rituals."

Severus grew pale. "And you think that this diary is a horcrux?"

He nodded. "It was."

"Was? You destroyed it?"

He nodded.

Severus sank back in his bed. "Do you think the Dark Lord has made more than one of these?"

"No, I'm almost confident that he didn't. From what I read, it is dangerous enough to create one horcrux. More than one would completely destroy the soul. I don't think that even he would risk it, and furthermore I don't even know if it's even possible."

"So he's gone?"

Lucius hesitated. "He should be."

"Should. That is hardly reassuring."

"I can't be positive; it's always possible that he delved deeper into other dark magics that we don't know about in order to preserve his existence."

They sat together in silence for a few more moments before Lucius spoke again. "You're not returning to Hogwarts, are you."

Severus snorted. "Don't be ridiculous. I have never wanted to teach, and now with Dumbledore gone, there is nothing to tie me to the school."

Lucius quirked an eyebrow. "With Dumbledore gone?"

"You can't tell me you don't plan to remove him after what happened," Severus snorted.

Lucius smiled. "No, you are correct. But if you do not return to Hogwarts, then what will you do?"

"It seems like I just had this conversation with Minerva," he commented idly. "I do not know for sure, perhaps travel the world."

Lucius eyed him carefully. "My family owes you a debt."

"That's hardly necessary." Severus tried to dismiss it.

"I take my debts seriously. You saved my son's life."

Snape looked amused from where he was lying on the bed. "And how do you plan on repaying that debt?"

"You are not returning to Hogwarts,"

"Yes, thank you for telling me, I hadn't realized," he snarked.

"I know how you have grown used to the comforts available to you at Hogwarts, therefore I am gifting you with a house-elf."

Severus flinched slightly in surprise. "You are what? I have no need of a house-elf!"

"You didn't before. You might need one now."

Severus looked at him doubtfully. "It's the loony one, isn't it."

Lucius' mouth twitched slightly. "Don't you know that it is impolite to insult a gift?"

He sighed. "It's not a gift; you are foisting a useless house-elf on me."

He shrugged. "Regardless of my intentions, you now own a house-elf. I already filled out the paperwork to transfer ownership. Dobby!" he called. The elf popped into the room. Lucius pointed at Severus. "He is your new master." The elf turned to look at Severus, a hopeful expression on his face. Severus grumbled incoherently and glared at the elf.

"Well, then," Lucius said. "I believe I shall take my leave now." He stood, his hand resting on his cane. "I wish you luck." He turned and walked to the door, stopping with his hand on the door knob when Severus called out for him to wait. He turned around again to face him.

"Was it Draco?" Severus asked, ignored the elf's unintentional flinch.

Lucius frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"

"Is he why you turned?"

He was silent for a moment before responding. "He was the start. I finally realized that, while I may agree with a few of his ideas, the Dark Lord was never as subtle as I would have liked him to be. He was too brash. It was a liability; being in his service. I believe that I can go further if I completely sever ties with him."

Severus nodded silently. "I wish you luck," he said quietly. "And if you ever need help . . . "

Lucius nodded. "If I need help, I'll come to you."

* * *

"I can't believe it!" Amelia Bones said furiously. "How have no other students died before?"

Moody shrugged. "Pure luck, I'd imagine," he grumbled.

Amelia turned to him. "I'm sorry, Alastor," she said, her voice softening. "I know that you're friends with him. This must be difficult for you."

He shrugged. "He's not the man I once knew. He's changed. It's been subtle enough that I've never noticed it before, but now I can see with the benefit of hindsight that Albus has been slowly changing for years."

She sighed, sitting back down behind her desk and reaching for the stack of parchment on top. "Alright, let's review the findings. What have you got?"

"To start with the most pertinent information, we have found another troll at the school."

She could feel the blood leaving her face. "Another?"

He nodded grimly. "We have contacted the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, and they have agreed to relocate it elsewhere."

"But how did it even get inside the school? One troll should have been impossible, let alone two!"

"Well, do you remember the attempted robbery at Gringotts earlier this year? The object that had been in the vault was removed earlier that day by Rubeus Hagrid, acting on orders from Albus Dumbledore. The stone was placed in a corridor on the third floor, guarded with various protections from the teachers."

"The teachers were involved in this? Did they know what was going on?"

"I'm not sure it they knew what exactly the protections were for, but our charms expert assured me that there were safeguards on most of the protections to prevent fatalities from occurring, which leads me to believe that they were deceived about the actual purpose of them. The exceptions to this were the troll, most likely from Quirinus Quirrel, and one involving potions that we have confirmed to have been created by Severus Snape."

"I assume, then, that you have questioned him? What does he have to say about this?"

"He claims that Dumbledore placed the stone there and asked the teachers to provide protections for it. According to him, there was an age line in front of the room that was placed there by Dumbledore in order to prevent students from entering and getting devoured by the cerberus When we were there, there was no evidence of an age line."

"A cerberus? I'm not sure I even want to know."

"One of Hagrid's pets. It's been taken care off."

Amelia nodded. "And the stone? What of it?"

He shook his head. "It was not there when we went. The only reason that we know that it was there at one time was the magical trace that it left showed up on our detectors."

"Have you contacted Flamel?"

"We did; his response was that the stone is safe now and he wants nothing to do with the wizarding world at this time."

"Well, that certainly sounds like he isn't happy. And the rest of the protections?"

"They have been removed. The corridor that they were in has been cleared out and is in the process of being restored."

Amelia nodded. "Thank you, Alastor. And the next issue?"

He sighed, gesturing at a chair. "Do you mind if I sit down, Amelia? These are all going to take a while."

She nodded. "That's fine, go ahead."

He sat down, leaning against the back of the chair with a groan before starting again. "There is a hidden room in the left corridor of the seventh floor. We couldn't find any concrete information about it, but we assumed that it's been there since the Founders' day. It took us forever to figure it out. Our spells kept telling us that there was a hidden room, but we just couldn't figure out how to get inside. Eventually one of the trainees suggested that we ask the house elves, and they told us what to do. To get inside, you have to walk past the door three times thinking about what you need. There are countless variations of the room, but the one that triggered the dark detection spells appears to be the hiding place for hundreds of years of students. It's mainly harmless junk; stolen books from the library, notes and essays, a bunch of random school supplies. The objects that caused us concern were a few blood quills, some poisons, and some enchanted muggle artefacts. Those have all been disposed of properly. There was one other major find in this Room of Requirement; according to the Department of Mysteries, it is Ravenclaw's lost diadem."

Amelia gasped. "Are they sure? If they are right, it would be a colossal find."

He hesitated. "They are relatively sure, however . . . the diadem has been contaminated."

She raised an eyebrow. "Contaminated? How?"

He shrugged. "Some form of dark magic. The unspeakables took it, said they'd take care of it. I asked it the diadem was salvageable, and they said it was uncertain at this point." He grimaced.

She nodded resignedly. "It's probably lost forever. Even if they did manage to decontaminate it, I doubt they'd let go of it. They'd want to study a powerful artefact like Ravenclaw's diadem."

"Speaking of artefacts from the founders, do you know what else we found? Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets."

She stared at him in shock. "But the legend says that only his heir could find it!"

He snorted. "All that means is that you need a parselmouth to get in. We had to bring in a wizard from Peru to come in and help us."

"Where's the entrance to his chamber? I've always wondered that."

He smirked. "In a girls' loo."

"What?"

"I'm serious, the entrance to Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets is in a girls' loo. The one haunted by that one girl."

"Moaning Myrtle?"

"Yeah, that one."

"And his monster? Is that part of the legend real?"

He nodded. "Oh, yeah, it's real. Nearly killed us before we could take care of it."

"Well, what is it?"

"It was a basilisk."

"It's dead?"

He nodded. "The Peruvian wizard killed it with an ancient Incan spell."

She looked worried. "Does that mean we have to pay him more?"

"No, we just gave him part of the hide and a few fangs. He was happy with them. Although the basilisk wasn't the only thing we found in there."

"What else?"

"Slytherin's personal library and workshop." He smirked.

"You're joking," she gasped.

"No, it's true. I saw it myself."

"But that's- that's amazing! Do you know how much information there could be in those books? Where are they now?"

"We contacted the head librarian from the magical branch of the London Library. They sent a few workers over to Hogwarts to start cataloging the books. We can discuss what to do with the books in more detail once we know exactly what we have."

She nodded distractedly. "Yes, good idea. Anything else to report? I thought I heard a few things about the Forbidden Forest . . . ?"

He nodded grimly. "Acromantula."

"Do we know how they got there?"

"It was Hagrid. He was expelled from Hogwarts because it was believed that he was hiding the creature that had killed a girl in the castle. Of course, now we know that it was actually the basilisk that got her. We offered him a trade: we clear his record and allow him to legally use his wand and he helps us clear out the nests. We've contacted a silk farm in Italy, and they've agreed to purchase them."

Amelia groaned, leaning forward to rest her head on her hands. "Please tell me that's all."

He shrugged. "That's most of it. There are a few other random dark artefacts that we found scattered throughout the school. The Mirror of Erised, a few suits of armor charmed to trip people on top of the stairs, smaller stuff like that that has already been removed. But other than those few issues, that's all."

"By your estimation, when do you think we can get the school back up and running?" she asked.

"I'd say sometime around the second week of January or so," he responded.

She nodded." And that's just maybe a week after the Christmas holidays would normally end, so that works perfectly. Our next step is to decide what to do with Albus. I hate to ask, since the two of you are friends, but do you have any ideas about what to do?"

"Well, on that point, I have been contacted by Lucius Malfoy. . ." He trailed off.

Amelia let out another sigh.

* * *

In a small room in the Department of Mysteries, Augustus Rookwood, an experienced unspeakable stood in front of the glass case that held Ravenclaw's lost diadem. He held a careful hand out to it, feeling the magic around it. It felt familiar to him, as familiar as the tattoo on his left forearm.

* * *

 **Rookwood wasn't sent to Azkaban in this story, he bought his way free. Why? Because I wanted an unspeakable death eater.**


	7. Chapter 7

Back at Hogwarts, things were happening fast. Amelia Bones had talked the minister into meeting seriously with the Hogwart's Board of Governors about the recent events, and they were making some changes at the school. A new wizarding traditions class was going to be introduced, starting first as an extracurricular class before transitioning to a required class for all students to take at least once, and the material for Muggle Studies had been updated. Because of the wide-spread rumours about a curse on the defense position that had been further substantiated by Quirrell's disappearance, a curse breaker had been called in to investigate. A curse was found and removed and a retired auror had been hired for the position. Professor Binns had been let go from his teaching position and relocated to the library, for the rare student who wanted to ask him questions. Professor McGonagall had tried to convince the board that Professor Trelawney was an incompetent teacher and should be removed, but her connection to Cassandra Trelawney was too strong for her to be successful. And there was also the fact that there was no one competent enough in Great Britain to do better.

After the meeting with the Board, Madame Bones and Professor McGonagall had disappeared into the headmaster's office for almost half an hour. The Board members speculated quite seriously about what they were doing with the headmaster, but since there were no screams of pain, Lucius Malfoy's guess was wrong. He was quite disappointed about that.

All in all, Lucius was very pleased with the changes that the school had gone through. The new wizarding traditions class would help to indoctrinate the new mudbloods into the proper culture. A competent defense teacher would drastically improve the scores of the students, and it was satisfying for him on a personal level since it removed the stain of the Dark Lord from the castle. It was just a shame that they hadn't managed to remove that fraud Trelawney.

Inside the headmaster's office, Albus Dumbledore sat at his desk, his head resting in his hands, his long white beard trailing across the desk. On the desk, right in front of him, was a list that Madame Bones had left.

Had he really let things get this bad? Yes, he realized that sometimes he went overboard with his manipulations, but still . . . they were necessary, right? The outcome was all that mattered in the end. After all, sometimes sacrifices had to be made, for the greater good.

The Greater Good. Was that really what he thought? Was he really no better than Grindelwald? He had good intentions as well, long ago. Maybe Madame Bones was right. He let out a deep sigh before lifting his head up and glancing over at Fawkes, sitting on his perch beside the desk. "What do you think, Fawkes? Have I gone too far?"

Fawkes tilted his head to the side and trilled sadly. He spread his wings and flew to the door, perching on the frame. He trilled again, gesturing towards Albus with his wing.

Albus frowned slightly. "What are you trying to say, Fawkes? That was mainly a rhetorical question. You weren't meant to actually answer it."

Fawkes glared at him. It was surprisingly intimidating, coming as it did from a flaming chicken.

"Leave? For good? No, I don't think so. I still have enough support to make it too difficult for them to try and force me out. And after all, I am the only one who knows what Tom is capable of. No one else can understand him enough to stop him. I am meant to end it, with Harry Potter at my side. They may have moved Harry Potter out of my reach, but I will still do the best I can on my own. No one else can do it. I have to. No, I haven't gone too far. I've done only what is needed. They would understand, if they knew what I do.

"No, I'll continue as I always have. They will understand, in the end."

Fawkes glared at him, flying back to his perch and turning around to face away from Albus.

"But perhaps I will take a short break away from the school. Madame Bones has been pushing for it, anyway. People will think that I am taking a short sabbatical because I've been overworked, and I can search for Tom. Yes, I think I will. A compromise, perhaps," he mused.

* * *

Harry stood nervously outside the door, his hands clutching tightly to the hem of his shirt. He felt a hand touch his shoulder and looked up. Daniel smiled gently at him. "It'll be fine, Harry," he said reassuringly. Harry took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

There was a half-hearted growl from inside the room. "Come in." Harry opened the door carefully, poking his head in. Standing out in the hallway, Daniel could hear a moment of silence, and then a gruff, "Potter. Don't stand about in the hall."

Harry opened the door completely and stepped inside the room. Snape motioned him closer.

"Well? What do you want?"

"I- I just wanted to tell you that- that I- well, I wanted to tell you get better soon." he wrung his hands even in his shirt hem even more, starting to stretch it out."

Snape raised an eyebrow sardonically at him. "Get better? Why, Potter, thank you for your concern." He smirked. "It gratifies me that the Great Harry Potter wants me _to get better soon._ " He snorted at Harry's hurt look. "Really, Potter, I'm in a magical hospital with purely physical wounds, I'll be up and walking in a few days. I'm surprised you don't know that already, what with you being the Boy-Who-Lived."

At this, Harry looked at him indignantly, forgetting his uncertainty. "Why do you keep saying things like that! I didn't know anything about the wizarding world until Hagrid knocked the door down!"

"Really?" Snape raised a brow. "How did you not? Who has raised you?"

"My aunt. Aunt Petunia."

"What." His gaze grew cold. "Whose brilliant idea was that?"

"Andromeda said that it was Headmaster Dumbledore."

"But he should not have been allowed to make those decisions about you."

Harry shrugged, his small face stoic. "Well, it's too late to change things now. And now Daniel and Jean said that I can live with them. They said that they're going to try and adopt me, so they'll be my parents."

For a moment, a conflicted look flashed across Snape's face before he nodded. "Congratulations," he said gruffly.

"Thanks," Harry said softly. "Anyway, I was wondering if maybe you could tell me about my mum, since you used to know her."

Snape snorted softly. "Why in Merlin's name would you ask me that?"

Harry reached carefully into his pocket and pulled out a photo and handed it to Snape, who looked at it carefully, his face blank. "I found this in one of my mum's journals, in their vault. And Andromeda said that you used to be friends, when you were in school together." He looked earnestly up at Snape with big green eyes. Snape hesitated, trying to look away from Harry's tear-filled eyes. "Are you doing that on purpose?" he asked gruffly.

Harry said innocently, "Is it working?"

"Fine, yes, whatever," Snape grumbled. "Yes, I used to know Lily, we grew up near each other."

"Really?" Harry's face brightened.

Snape hesitated before responding. "Yes. And I introduced her to the wizarding world."

"Can you tell me about her?" Harry asked, his eyes wide.

For a moment, Snape looked as if he would say no, but he glanced at Harry's desperate face and relented. "Fine. I suppose that I could." He gestured at the chair next to the bed. "Sit down, Potter. And keep still," he warned. "I don't want to see you fidgeting."

"Oh, I won't," Harry said, his eyes bright. "I'll be as still as I can."

"See that you do," Snape warned. "Now, the first time that I met Lily, she was on the swings with her sister. . ."

. . . . .

"Do you think Professor Snape agreed to talk to Harry?" Hermione asked her mother curiously. They were standing a few hallways away from Professor Snape's room while Daniel and Harry went alone.

"I don't know, Hermione," Jean said. "But they've been gone for a while, so I would think so."

"Good." she said. She glanced around the hallway. "I'm bored."

"Be patient. Remember, you said that you wanted to come with Harry."

"Yeah, but I thought I'd be able to talk to the Professor. This is boring."

"Well, we are in a hospital. I'm sure someone else would enjoy a visit. Didn't you mention one of your year mates who is also here? Maybe they're as bored as you are and would like a visit."

Hermione stared at her aghast. "Mum, it's _Malfoy,_ he hates me and Harry."

"Maybe you just need to give him another chance." Jean smiled at her encouragingly.

"Fine," Hermione sighed. "Let's go visit Malfoy. But if we get kicked out, then I'm blaming you," she warned.

. . . . .

Draco Malfoy looked up from his book. "Granger?" he said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Harry's here visiting Professor Snape," she said awkwardly. "So I thought I'd visit you to see how you're doing."

Draco stared at her, then rolled his eyes. "As you can see, I'm still alive. Now get out."

"What happened to you? No one really seems to know."

"I was brutally attacked by a troll, what do you think happened?"

She rolled her eyes. "I know that, but what happened to _you_? How were you hurt?"

"Well, I won't bore you with the technical details, as I'm sure you would not be able to understand them, but it's a defense mechanism common in _magical_ children, where their magic senses that they are in danger and acts to protect the child. Sort of similar to accidental magic except much more powerful. Since the best option for my survival was to play dead so the troll wouldn't notice me and attack, my magic sent me into a coma. I just woke up a few days ago."

"Oh. Ok. What are you reading?" she moved closer, tilting her head slightly so she could see the cover.

Draco quickly set the book down on the bed in front of him, hiding the cover. "I thought I told you to get out."

"Yes, but I'm ignoring you," she responded.

He rolled his eyes again. "Yes, I can see that." He finally acquiesced and held the book up so she could read the title.

" _Quintessence: A Quest_ ," she read aloud. "That's a good one."

"You've read it before?"

She nodded. "Of course. Andromeda gave it to me for Christmas."

"One of your muggle friends?" he sneered. "How'd they get it?"

She glared at him. "Andy's not a muggle, she's a witch, and she's Harry's cousin. Andromeda Tonks."

"Oh, wait, you mean that Tonks woman?"

"Do you know her?" Hermione asked. "She's really helped us out. I think she's awesome."

"I think she's related to my mum somehow," Draco replied. "I've heard her talking about her before. She married a muggle, or something like that."

"A muggleborn. She married a muggleborn. His name's Ted. I've met him, he's really nice."

Draco rolled his eyes. "If you say so, Granger."

"So how was your Christmas?" she asked cheerfully, sitting down on the chair by the side of the bed and swinging her legs.

"You're here just to annoy me, aren't you."

"Yep! And I won't leave until you talk to me. How was your Christmas?"

"My Yule was very good, thank you for asking."

"You don't celebrate Christmas?"

"Christmas is a filthy muggle tradition."

"Well, that's rude of you," she said in a hurt tone.

He shrugged slightly. "But true."

"Whatever. How was your Yule then?"

He snorted. "Granger, I'm stuck in this hospital room all the time and I can't leave. How do you think it was?"

"Not very good then. My Christmas was very good, thanks for asking."

He sighed, sliding down deeper into the bed. "Will you just go away?"

"Are you going to go back to school after it starts up again?"

"Not that it matters to you, but the mediwitch said that I should be able to go back next school year."

"So not after the Christmas break."

"No."

"But then you'll be behind in your classes."

"It doesn't really matter that much," he said, "Since I was already ahead when this school year started. So when I go back next year I won't be behind at all."

"Oh. Why were you ahead?"

"Because I'm a pureblood and thusly am better at everything."

"You are not superior to me just because I'm a muggleborn!" she huffed, standing up from her chair.

"Oh, are you leaving? Thank Merlin."

"You are not better than me just because I'm a muggleborn."

"If you want to continue in your delusion, then go ahead."

"Fine, then, I will."

"So you are leaving?"

"Yes, I am. And I'm not going back to Hogwarts, so good riddance to you and all the other idiots there. I _tried_ to be nice, but you always insist on being rude to me."

"Wait, you're not going back to Hogwarts? Did they finally realize that you don't belong there?"

"We're going to be homeschooled."

"We? Wait, is Potter leaving as well?"

"Yes."

He sneered. "Good luck with that, then. You'll be so behind the rest of us that I can almost feel sorry for you instead of the normal disgust."

"Andy said she'd get tutors for us. Just you wait, Malfoy!" Hermione warned. "You'll see!"

"Whatever." He rolled his eyes. "Good luck with your _homeschooling_ , thanks for visiting, now get out."


	8. Chapter 8

In his cell at Nurmengard, the prison he had designed himself, Grindelwald looked up at the sound of footsteps. It was unusual for someone to visit him since the guards were so strict. As the footsteps came to a stop in from of his door, the window in the door slid open and a face appeared.

"Albus," he said quietly. "What brings you here?" He looked old, much older than he should look. But then again, neither of them were the young men that they had once been.

Albus glared down at him, beginning to regret coming. It was bringing back too many memories. "I have some questions that I need answered."

Gellert raised an eyebrow inquisitively. "Well? Ask away"

"Will you answer?"

The prisoner shrugged somewhat flippantly. "That depends on what you ask."

Albus leaned closer to the window, his eyes earnest. "What rituals are there to prolong life?"

A few hours later, Dumbledore strode out of the prison determinedly, nodding to the guards as he passed them. He quickly apparated over to Egypt and the magical Library of Alexandria. There were some books that he knew of there that might help him.

* * *

The spring semester of that year started out somberly. The headmaster was gone, forced out onto a semester long sabbatical. The news of all that the aurors had found at the school during the inspection over the winter break had been published in the _Daily Prophet_ , so the students were gossiping out it. A few, namely the Weasley twins, seemed depressed when McGonagall informed the school that all of the dangers had been removed.

The news spread quickly that Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived wasn't at Hogwarts, and rumours spread wildly as to why. It took another announcement by the interim headmistress Minerva McGonagall to silence all of them.

In the school's dungeons, the Slytherins were adjusting to the new changes at Hogwarts. The new head of Slytherin, Professor Sinistra, wasn't a bad head, she was just different than Snape had been. Some might count that as a blessing, but to the students who had been protected and guided by Snape when the headmaster had overlooked them, it was more of a detriment.

Meanwhile, Ron sat at the Gryffindor table by himself, his head slumped down. All he had wanted was to be Harry's friend, to be admired and honoured and not be in his brother's shadows all the time. He had been a good friend to Harry, he _had,_ but all it had taken was one simple mistake, one moment of misjudgment, and Harry had dropped him. He glared at the table in front of him. He'd prove them all wrong. He could be great without Harry Potter. He would be the best student Hogwarts had ever had. He would surpass all of his brothers.

And over at the Granger's house, Hermione and Harry were working hard. Andromeda and Ted would come over during the evenings and give them a quick lesson as well as assignments to work on for the next day. With no distractions from the other students and lessons designed for them specifically in mind, the two new siblings were progressing rapidly. Already they were a few weeks beyond their counterparts at Hogwarts. Their combined lessons also served to create a stronger bond between them.

* * *

Amelia Bones, Mad-Eye Moody, and Lucius Malfoy were moving quickly behind Dumbledore's back. With the headmaster temporarily gone, they were gathering support to force his permanent retirement. While the Wizengamot and the Ministry of Magic normally had little control over the school, they could remove the headmaster from his position if there was a three-fourths majority vote. It had only happened a few times in history- Phineas Nigellus Black had come close- but it was still a possibility. The few members of the Wizengamot with children at Hogwarts were easier to persuade since it was their children that Dumbledore had placed into the path of danger. The ones who were traditionally darker agreed once the words "remove Dumbledore" were spoken. The real holdout were the older light wizards and witches. But, with the help of Augusta Longbottom, they were being converted one by one. Amelia predicted that by the time Dumbledore came back from his enforced sabbatical, he would already have been removed from office.

. . . . .

Dumbledore walked tiredly through Hogwart's doors after that year of school was through. It was time to get back to the business of Hogwarts. It had been a long couple of months in his search, throughout the libraries of the world and the forests of Albania, but he felt that it had been worth it. He would not have been able to gather the information that he had about Tom if he hadn't been forced out on a sabbatical. In a way, he was grateful.

He came to the doors of his office, high in his tower. "Open," he commanded the gargoyle. It was silent. He glared at it, the contentment that he had been feeling draining out quickly. "Open, I said." There was still no response. He was just about to draw his wand when the doors opened on their own. Minerva McGonagall stood in the open doorway.

"Albus," she said in surprise. His eyes narrowed. She was surprised, yes, but there was something else there. She looked guilty. "Minerva." He nodded in greeting. "Do you know why the guard did not obey me?"

She looked even more guilty, shifting nervously. "I might. Why don't you come in?"

He spoke coldly. "Thank you, don't mind if I do." He strode proudly into his office, his bright purple robes flaring out behind him. Minerva sat behind his desk. In his chair. What was this ridiculousness?

"That's my chair."

She shifted in the seat. "Um, actually-"

"Actually, it's not your chair. Not any longer," came a cold voice from behind him. Dumbledore turned to face Lucius Malfoy, standing just inside the office door with a smug smile, his hands crossed on top of his silver cane.

"I'm afraid I don't quite understand you." Dumbledore's eyes narrowed.

"You don't? I'm sorry, I shall endeavor to use smaller words."

"Lucius," McGonagall warned. "Just tell him."

Dumbledore's surprised glance moved between the two. Since when did Minerva address the Malfoy git by name?

Malfoy seemed to grow serious at Minerva's glare. "You have been removed from office."

"Impossible," Dumbledore snorted.

"No?" Lucius enquired. "And yet, it has happened. Perhaps if you had been here, things would have been different."

"You forced me out," the former headmaster growled out between gritted teeth. "I had no choice."

Lucius shrugged. "I'm afraid that's not my problem. I'm sure that if it weren't for your utter incompetence and buffoonery, this would not have been necessary."

"And who do you plan on getting as my replacement?"

He looked self-satisfied. "I believe that Professor McGonagall has done an excellent job as interim headmistress."

Albus turned to McGonagall, a brief moment of hope flickering forward. "Minerva?"

A regretful look passed over her face. "I'm sorry, Albus, there was nothing I could do. And there was some truth to what they said."

He looked hurt. "So that is it then? I must leave?"

"Good riddance, I say!" came the cry from Phineas Nigellus Black's portrait. McGonagall glared him into silence. She turned back to Dumbledore. "I am sorry, Albus," she said again.

Dumbledore gave her one last hurt look. For the first time that Minerva could remember, he looked his age. "Very well," he declared. "It seems that I have been overruled." He turned and left, ignoring Lucius' smirk.

McGonagall watched him leave, a shadow of regret in her eyes. There was none in Lucius Malfoy's.

* * *

At the beginning of the next school year, Filius Flitwick stood at the entrance to his classroom, watching the hordes of students pass by on their way to their next class. In the middle of the crowd, something caught his eye. A frown crossed his face. He made his way through the crowd, using his wand to chivy students along as needed. On the other side of the crowd, he came upon a student, young Luna Lovegood, sitting alone against the wall. A trio of older students stood over her. A quick glance at them and he had them identified as third year Ravenclaws.

"What's going on over here?" he asked sternly. One of the older students, Marietta Edgecombe, jumped, looking around frantically before finally glancing down at him. "Sir!"

"Well?" he raised a stern eyebrow.

"I- nothing, sir, we were just helping Lovegood to her next class."

Flitwick turned to Lovegood. "Miss Lovegood?"

She glanced up, looking at the other students uncertainly. No matter what she said, her red eyes and tear-stained face told a clear story.

"They took my bag," she said softly.

"That's a lie!" The leader of the older students cried. "She's lying, sir, don't listen to her."

"That's it right there," Lovegood pointed to a bag hanging from one of the other student's shoulders. It was bright purple, with what looked like lettuce on it. Actual lettuce leaves sewn on, not just embroidered on with embroidery floss. It definitely looked like something a Lovegood would wear.

The student holding it dropped it on the floor hurriedly. "I didn't _steal_ it; I was just going to carry it for Loony- I mean Luna, I was carrying it for Luna." She glanced guiltily at Marietta.

Flitwick picked up the bag and handed it to Lovegood. "Hurry on to class, then, Miss Lovegood," he said softly, glancing around the corridor. "Diggory," he called.

"Yes, sir?"

"Show Miss Lovegood to her next class."

He glanced understandingly at her. "Yes, sir." He beckoned to Luna. When they were both gone, Flitwick turned to the others. "Ten points from Ravenclaw. Each. And detention."

. . . . .

Draco Malfoy in particular was having a hard time adjusting to life back to normal. Everyone knew what had happened to him when the troll had attacked, and now everyone knew what had happened to him afterwards; about how he had been in a coma and had to be in hospital for multiple months, and upon waking was too weak to attend school for the spring semester.

His long absence from Hogwarts had alienated him from his fellow Slytherins. It was seen as a weakness, and in Salazar Slytherin's house, that was the worst thing that could happen. It didn't help that his father's sudden change in politics had caused even more problems. Those who had once been able to count on Lucius Malfoy's help in evading the law now found that he was less than willing to help those who still held loyalty towards the Dark Lord. Draco had never really had close friends at Hogwarts; Vincent and Gregory were more like bodyguards then they were friends. He had been close with Daphne Greengrass when they were younger, but they had grown out of that friendship years before Hogwarts.

The second year Slytherins were just leaving their potions class with the new professor, Professor Bowman. The class had been extremely different than it was when Snape taught it. Draco had mixed feelings about it. The main crowd went off together, leaving Draco straggling along behind, alone. He had no more classes that day, so he was heading to the library to get in a few hours of studying before he had to get back to his room. He headed straight to the quidditch books.

Draco was just turned back to head to a table with his chosen book on his arms when he bumped into someone, knocking both of their books to the floo. "Ow! Watch it!" he snapped out.

"Watch yourself!" the other retaliated. It was the Weasley boy. Draco's eyes narrowed. He glanced down at the book the Gryffindor was holding. " _History of the Chudley Cannons: Their Rise and Fall_?" he sneered. "Why are you even bothering with that waste of quidditch equipment?"

Ron puffed up with indignation. "Shut up, Malfoy, no one asked you. Besides, the Chudley Cannons are going to actually win a game this year!"

Draco laughed coldly. "No, they won't. Face it Weasley, they're as hopeless as your family."

"At least my family never bowed down and licked You-Know-Who's boots," Ron snapped back.

"You take that back," Draco hissed dangerously, moving closer so he was in Ron's face.

"Make me, _death eater_."

Draco dropped his book onto the floor and they both grabbed for their wands.

" _What is the meaning of this?"_

They both froze and turned, staring up at the imposing face of Minerva McGonagall.

"Please, Professor McGonagall," Ron said. "He insulted my family."

"Is that so?" she asked, looked at him suspiciously. "And you, Mr. Malfoy? What is your story?"

"I didn't do anything; he was the one who insulted my family."

Professor McGonagall took a close look at the two boys, each standing defiantly apart with his wand grasped tightly. "I believe this hostility between the two of you has gone on long enough," she declared with finality. Draco looked worried at her statement. Ron just looked confused.

"What?"

"You two are _always_ getting into fights and arguments. And I have had enough." She grabbed the two by their shoulders and forced them to face each other. "As punishment for fighting in the library, the two of you must write a two-foot essay concerning ideal inter-house relations."

"But-" Draco started to protest.

"You will write these essays together," McGonagall continued, completely steamrolling over Draco's attempted protest. "It must be turned into me in my office by the end of this week." She peered down at the two over the top of her glasses. "And don't ever let me catch either of you threatening another student."

After she had left, Ron turned to Draco, shoving him slightly with his shoulder. "This is all your fault," he hissed."

"Shut up, blood traitor."

Ron shoved Draco in the shoulder as he walked past. Why did things keep happening to him?


	9. Chapter 9

_Third year. . ._

Remus Lupin sat in his tumbledown cottage in Yorkshire, using the light from his wand to read over the newspaper in his hands. His latest job had fallen through when he hadn't showed up the day after the full moon. The help wanted ads in the paper were not the best jobs available, but there weren't too many options left for him anymore.

He looked up at a knock to the door. "Come in!" he called out. "It's not locked." There was little need to lock his door, as he had nothing of value left. Besides, the lock had broken last month and he didn't have the money to replace it.

With a large, grandiose sweep of his robes, Albus Dumbledore strode into the room. "Headmaster," Remus greeted with surprise. "What brings you out here?"

"Grave news, I'm afraid. Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban." Dumbledore's solemn face was at odds with his lime green robes with purple trim.

Remus' face grew pale. He raised a shaky hand to run through his untidy hair. "How?"

"We're not sure."

"Why come to me? I'm not helping him; I swear I'm not."

"I believe you," Dumbledore hastened to reassure him. "I am sure that you have heard that I have been forced to retire as the Hogwarts headmaster?"

Remus nodded, frowning. "I couldn't believe it when I heard it. You were the best headmaster Hogwarts has ever had."

Dumbledore sighed mournfully. "Alas, there is nothing that can be done now. But now, I have come to speak to you about Harry."

"Harry?" Remus repeated. "I haven't seen him in years. It was too dangerous to go and see him, you said that."

The former headmaster nodded. "I did. But now I fear that Black will target Harry."

"Oh, Merlin," Remus breathed. "And with you no longer at Hogwarts. . ."

"That hardly matters since Harry is no longer attending Hogwarts."

"He's what?" Remus cried. "But everyone goes to Hogwarts! Both of his parents went there! It's the best wizarding school in the world!"

"I fear that his new guardians do not trust me."

"New guardians? Wasn't he staying with his aunt?"

Dumbledore frowned. "There was a change in his guardianship. Harry has been adopted by a muggle family. They were the ones who removed him from Hogwarts."

"I can't believe it," Remus muttered.

"I have come to ask for your help."

"Of course, sir! I haven't forgotten what you did for me when I was a child, and everything afterwards. If it weren't for you I would never have been able to attend Hogwarts at all."

Dumbledore relaxed. "Good."

The next day, Jean Granger opened her front door to see Albus Dumbledore and Remus Lupin standing on her front porch. "You!" she hissed. "What are you doing here?"

"Good day, madam. I am Albus Dumbledore and-"

"I know who you are," she said coldly. "Now what are you doing here?"

Dumbledore stiffened self-righteously. "I have come to warn you. A dangerous criminal has broken out of prison, and we believe that he may come after young Harry."

"We know. The house has been warded and there are undercover aurors stationed around the neighborhood."

"Oh." He faltered. "Well, then, I would also like to introduce you to Mr. Remus Lupin here," he gestured at him. "He was one of the late James Potter's closest friends." His expression grew mournful. "He would like to meet Harry."

She looked suspicious. "One of James Potter's closest friends?"

"Yes," Lupin nodded. "I just want to talk to Harry, tell him about his parents. I have some stories I'm sure he would love to hear."

"If you were one of his closest friends, then where have you been?"

"What?" he blinked in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"Harry is thirteen now. Why is this the first time you want to meet him?"

"It was too dangerous, I'm not safe."

She looked him up and down. "I don't see how you are any less safe than any other wizard."

Lupin looked questionably over at Dumbledore, who nodded. He turned back to Jean Granger. "I'm a werewolf."

"I see." She looked surprised, but continued on. "So, what, you turn into a wolf? Every full moon, correct?"

He nodded. "So you see, it was too dangerous for me to see Harry. What if I had bitten him?"

She glared at him. "That excuse is ridiculous, and you know it. It would have done him no harm for you to just visit him once in a while! But no, you left that poor boy alone and helpless. Leave," She said coldly. "I will tell Harry that you were here. If he wants to speak with you then we will get in contact with you." She began to shut the door in their faces, but Dumbledore stuck his foot in the crack before it was completely shut. "There is one more thing. . ."

She opened the door again. "What?"

Dumbledore held a silvery article of clothing out to her. She prodded it cautiously with a finger before taking it. "This belonged to James Potter. He left it in my care before he died. I thought that perhaps Harry would like it."

Jean cautiously grabbed it. "I'll ask him," she said gruffly.

"And if Harry has any other questions about his parents, Mr. Lupin here would be pleased to answer them. If he-" He was left, staring disgruntledly at the closed door in his face.

* * *

Still a little bit bitter from the loss Gryffindor had suffered to the Ravenclaws in that day's quidditch game, despite the fact that she was supposed to remain neutral, Minerva McGonagall softly entered the Gryffindor common room, looking around carefully. She was bending over to pick up a forgotten book laying on the floor when she heard the scream.

She began running towards the stairs where the scream had come from when she was nearly bowled over by a large black dog. With swift reflexes, she stunned the dog, leaving it to come back to later. Dogs were not on the list of allowed pets. Some poor student was going to get into a lot of trouble.

She followed the noises until she opened the door and saw Ron Weasley sitting up in his bed, the hangings torn from one side, a look of utmost terror on his face.

"Black! Sirius Black! With a knife!"

" _What?"_ Minerva grew pale.

"Here! Just now! Slashed the curtains! Woke me up!"

"You sure you weren't dreaming, Ron?" said Dean.

"Look at the curtains! I tell you, he was here!"

Minerva's mind went to the dog that she had stunned just a few minutes before. Her eyes narrowed. She left the room.

"Hey!" came Ron's indignant cry. "I was almost killed by a raving mad murderer! Where are you going?"

"Be quiet, Mr. Weasley!" she snapped. Down in the common room, she stood over the still grim, her wand ready. To her surprise, the animagi reveal spell showed _two_ animagi, instead of the one she had been expecting. Upon closer examination, she found a rat trapped underneath the dog's massive paws. She stood back up and immediately frowned.

"What are you lot going down here?" she snapped at the boys who had followed her down from their room. "Get back to your rooms! Ten points from Gryffindor!"

"But Professor-"

"Now!"

Once they were all gone, she quickly snapped off a patronus to Amelia Bones. She didn't know what was going on, but she did know that something was not right.

. . . . .

"This is an outrage!" Amelia Bones yelled at Fudge. "Thrown into Azkaban! Without a trial! Minister, the Ministry of Magic has wronged Sirius Black, and it is our duty to remedy that."

He still looked uncertain. "But Amelia, imagine how people will react! We can't be seen going back on our decisions!"

"It wasn't our decision," she reminded him. "It was that of the previous ministry, under Minister Bagnold. We had nothing to do with it."

He seemed to consider this. "Perhaps you are right. And if I am seen as correcting the mistake of the _previous_ minister. . ."

She smiled dangerously, showing teeth. "Exactly, Cornelius."

Just a few days later Sirius Black was resting in St Mungo's. As soon as Minerva McGonagall had messaged Amelia Bones and she had rushed over to Hogwarts, the two witches had forced the animagi into their natural forms, revealing Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. After seeing both of them taken into custody by aurors, Amelia had called an emergency meeting with the minister, regardless of the time. Once he had been persuaded, there was little opposition to Sirius' innocence. How could there be, with Pettigrew lying there, alive?

There were a few who protested mainly on the principle of the matter, but in a matter of hours the former Azkaban prisoner Sirius Black was being treated for malnutrition and prolonged dementor exposure, among other things. As he had never officially been charged with anything and it was becoming increasingly clear that he was innocent, it was decided that he would only stand trial if evidence from Peter Pettigrew warranted it.

His first visitor was Remus Lupin. He came in awkwardly while Sirius was speaking with one of the nurses and stood there by the door, fidgeting with his wand in his hand. Once the nurse was gone, he spoke up. "I'm sorry, Sirius."

Sirius didn't look at him. "How did you get in here?"

"The nurses let me; I'm still listed as your emergency contact on your auror paperwork."

There was a moment of silence as Sirius continued to not look at him.

"Sirius?" the hopeful werewolf spoke up again. "Sirius, how was I supposed to know?" his voice broke.

Sirius glanced up at him briefly before looking away again. "Did you even question them?"

"Sirius- no, I couldn't, you know that. I'm a werewolf; if they even thought for one moment that I was in league with you- they wouldn't even have bothered with Azkaban." His voice broke. "If I had known what happened, I would never have left you there, you know that."

Sirius searched his face, hope growing on his face. He held his hand out to Lupin, who grabbed it with a joyful smile. They embraced like brothers.

They were interrupted by the sound of the door opening. The two looked up to see Albus Dumbledore standing in the open doorway.

"Headmaster," Sirius greeted, surprised. "What brings you here?"

Dumbledore winced at the appellation. "Ah, Sirius, my boy! You can't imagine how pleased I was to hear the news that you were innocent."

"Thank you, headmaster." Sirius shifted on his bed.

Dumbledore looked regretful. "Alas, if I had only questioned what I thought I knew, perhaps you would never have been forced to endure such tribulation. If there is anything that I can do for you, my boy, just tell me. I won't hesitate to help you this time"

"Ah, Professor, there actually is something that you could help me with."

Dumbledore spread his hands magnanimously. "Anything."

"Where is Harry?"

A somewhat shifty look came over the former headmaster's face. "Harry?"

"Yes. Harry Potter. My godson. Where is he?"

"I'm afraid I have some rather bad news, my boy."

Sirius' face grew pale. "No!"

"He's fine," Lupin rushed to reassure him. "At least we think he is."

"You think he is? Why don't you _know_ for sure?"

"Well, the last few years have been rather difficult."

"What do you mean?"

"I have been removed from Hogwarts."

"What!" Sirius gasped. "How could they have done that? Don't they know that you help keep Hogwarts safe? Without you that school would completely fall apart! Don't they know that?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "Alas, there were a few. . .events that led people to believe that I wasn't quite as competent and trustworthy as I had once been."

"So what does this have to do with Harry?"

"Unfortunately, he has been removed from the guardians that I placed him with."

"Where did you place him?" Sirius asked, frowning. "The Longbottoms?"

Dumbledore winced. "No, I suppose that you wouldn't have heard. Frank and Alice Longbottom were tortured extensively with the cruciatus curse a few days after you were arrested. Afterwards, they were declared insane. They currently reside in this very building, as they have ever since the incident."

Sirius winced. "So where has Harry been living?"

"Since the Potters' will was never located, he was placed with his closest living relatives."

Sirius thought about that. "Closest living relatives? I'm not sure. . ." He grew pale. "Surely you don't mean Lily's sister?" he questioned weakly. "She _hated_ Lily. And what do you mean their will was never located?"

"In the ruckus of the end of the war, there were mix-ups in the ministry and Gringotts Bank. The will was lost, and though it has been extensively searched for, it still remains lost. As a result, Harry was left in the care of his family."

"But they _hated_ Lily," Sirius protested again. "And you said he's not with them anymore?"

"Not long ago the ministry removed young Harry from his aunt's house," Dumbledore continued on. "That same year, I was removed from office."

Sirius turned to Remus. "So where were you when all of this was going on?"

He shrugged weakly. "I- I didn't want to hurt Harry. And since I'm a werewolf, there's always the danger of me attacking him."

Sirius stared at him. "That's only a possibility once a month." He shook his head. "You've changed, Remus." His expression looked lost. "What happened?"

"I was alone," Remus said quietly. "I was alone, and you were all gone." He looked down at his hands. "I grew up."

"Sirius," Dumbledore interrupted. "I do need your help."

"After how you mishandled my godson?" Sirius said bitterly. "I don't know if I want to."

"It is about Harry."

"Well?"

"I would like you to come with me to visit him. He really does need to return to Hogwarts. It's safer there, and he'd get a better education. You know that we have always done our best with our students."

"As you did with me?" Sirius asked softly. His eyes narrowed. "Get out," he said quietly.

"I'm sorry?" Dumbledore blinked in confusion.

"Get out," he repeated.

Dumbledore stood up. "Very well. If that is the way you feel." He left the room.

Remus looked down at Sirius regretfully. "I'm sorry," he said softly. He stood up and followed Dumbledore out of the room.

Alone in his hospital room, Sirius let himself cry for the first time since he had been arrested twelve years ago.

* * *

 **Portions of this were taken and adapted from _Prisoner of Azkaban._**


	10. Chapter 10

Sirius sat at the front of Courtroom Ten, watching expectantly. Remus sat beside him. Together, they watched as Peter Pettigrew was tried for conspiracy to murder and treason against magical Britain. He was swiftly sentenced to the dementor's kiss due to the incriminating evidence of the dark mark found on his forearm. The fact that he had faked his own death was rather incriminating, and the Wizengamot was in a hurry to make up for their earlier lapse in judgement. Sirius watched his former friend being dragged away by guards with a dark look in his eye. After he was gone, Remus also took his leave. Their friendship was shaky from twelve years of separation and Remus' continued loyalty to Albus Dumbledore. Remus would never quite be able to forget all that the former headmaster had done for him in allowing him to attend Hogwarts. Sirius couldn't fathom such unquestionable loyalty, and so their relationship had become strained.

Later that week in the dining room of the Leaky Cauldron, Sirius Black stared dispiritedly down at his drink. He had just been released from St Mungo's the day before, and had spent the rest of that day and the beginning of this one trying to find Harry, all to no success. He had briefly looked into contesting the Grangers' guardianship of Harry, but was advised against it; at least until he had completely recovered. Until then, he had an appointment with the best mind healer that the wizarding world had to offer every Wednesday.

He heard the door to Diagon Alley open, but he didn't look up. It was only when somebody sat across from him that he looked up.

"Andromeda!" he said, surprised.

"Welcome back, Sirius." She smiled warmly at him.

"I understand that you wish to see me," she commented moving straight to the point.

Sirius frowned, confused. "What? What do you mean?" he asked. "Not that I don't want to see you," he hurried to reassure her. "But I'm not sure that I know what you're talking about."

"I am one of Harry Potter's tutors."

He gaped at her. "You are? Then can you- do you think that you could tell me about him? No one else will," he finished bitterly.

She smiled. "Even better. I can introduce you to him."

"What? But I'm not allowed to meet him until the mind healer says I'm not going to go insane any time soon."

"No, you're just not allowed to be alone with him yet. But out here, in public. . ." she trailed off.

He brightened considerably. 'Where? When?"

"How about here and now?" She turned to the open door, and for the first time Harry noticed the young boy standing there. "Harry," he gasped.

Harry smiled nervously. "Hi, Mr. Black."

Sirius winced. "Please don't call me that, my name's Sirius."

Harry grinned shyly at him. "Hi, Sirius."

Sirius let out a joyous laugh. It continued until there were tears streaming down his face. "Sirius?" Andromeda asked, concerned. "Are you alright?"

"I will be," he said through his tears and laughter.

By the end of the meeting, Sirius and Harry had hit it off quickly, speaking mainly about quidditch and stories about his parents. Before Andromeda left with Harry, she had given him an invitation on behalf of the Grangers to a party the next weekend, just for friends and family.

* * *

In a dark corridor of Azkaban prison, Lucius Malfoy pulled his cloak tighter around himself, clutching his cane in his hand. It had been simple to get into the prison. The human guards assumed too much about the dementors' competency and did not focus as much as they should. Once inside, the biggest problem was locating what he was looking for since the ministry kept few records of prisoners once they were interned.

After almost an hour of strolling through the dank corridors he managed to locate what he was searching for. He peered through the bars at the disheveled witch that sat on the dirty floor, her knees pulled tightly up to her chest.

"Bellatrix," he greeted. Her head shot up.

"Dearest brother. What brings you to my idyllic abode?" she cackled. "Has our Lord returned? Have you come to free me?"

"Not yet," Lucius responded smoothly. "But soon. He requires something from you before he returns in full."

"Anything. I would give anything to have him back. Just tell me who I have to kill."

Lucius took a deep breath. He was taking a risk here. Narcissa had told him about an object that her sister had been gifted with, to protect with her life, but if she was wrong. . .he would be incriminating himself.

"Our Master gave you an object to protect, one precious to him. He requires it now."

For the first time since he had shown up, Bellatrix Lestrange looked suspicious, switching swiftly to hate and distrust. "And why would I give it to you? Why should I trust you? You _abandoned_ our lord as soon as it became risky for yourself! You care _nothing_ for our cause!"

"Bellatrix, our Master needs it."

"Well, if he wants it then he'll have to come here himself!" She flung herself at the bars, her mouth frothing as she reached out through the bars and tried to wrap her gnarled hands around his neck. Lucius took a step back, watching her calmly.

"You'll never get my cup, Lucius!" Bellatrix called out in a sing-song voice, still trying to strangle him. "Oh, no, you won't! The goblins won't give it to you, nasty little goblins! I don't like them. Perhaps I'll kill them when my Lord frees me."

"It's in Gringotts, then?" Lucius said calmly. "Thank you for your information, Bellatrix." He drew his wand from his cane.

A few minutes later Lucius Malfoy walked calmly out of the prison, carefully skirting the guards and leaving behind the broken carcass of his sister-in-law.

* * *

Sirius stood in the middle of the large room, looking out at the people surrounding him. HIs life had changed so suddenly that he was having trouble adjusting his view on life. Just a few short weeks ago he had been lying on the filthy ground of Azkaban Prison, shivering in fear whenever a dementor had come by. Now he was cleared of all charges, his money and property had all been restored to him, and he could see his godson again. It was at that moment, when Sirius was ruminating on everything that had happened to him, that said godson came walking up to him.

"Hi, Sirius!" Sirius beamed at him. "Are you enjoying yourself, Harry?"

"Oh, yes. Mr. Snape helped me prank Tonks. We put chili powder in her butterbeer, and she didn't even notice until she had downed almost half of it!" Harry saw Hermione from across the room and ran over to her. Behind him, Sirius took a steadying drink. Surely he had misheard Harry.

"Black," a cold voice said from behind him. Sirius shrieked in surprised terror and spun around.

"Snivellus? What are you doing here!"

Snape glared at Sirius. "I was invited," he said succinctly.

"Weren't you trying to be a teacher at Hogwarts? What are you doing here?"

"I left after the troll attack." Sirius paled. "What? Is that why Dumbledore is no longer the headmaster?"

"Yes."

"But what are you doing here? Why are you even allowed here?"

Snape just raised a sardonic eyebrow in response.

"Where's Andy? She needs to get rid of you." Sirius looked around the room furiously. "Andy! Hey, Andy!" he called out. Andromeda looked up from her conversation with Augusta Longbottom and gave him a dark look. She said something to Augusta, then walked over to Sirius. "What?"

"What's he doing here?" Sirius pointed an accusing finger at Snape.

"I invited him."

"You what!" he squawked. "Don't you know who he is?"

"Severus Snape?"

"He's a death eater! He's evil!"

"Harry likes him," Andromeda said calmly.

"That's it," Sirius declared. "I'm taking Harry away from here. There are too many bad influences here. It's not good for him."

"If you so much as try, I will kick you out and you will not be allowed anywhere near Harry." Sirius flinched at her threat.

"But- But he's Snape!"

"Lucius is here as well," Snape interjected, his dark eyes gleaming with amusement.

" _Malfoy? Malfoy's here too?"_

"Severus, you're not helping!" Andromeda hissed. "Shut up!"

"My apologies."

"Sirius," Andromeda said, trying to remain calm. "Things have changed since the last time you were out in civilized society."

"What are you talking about? He's never been in civilized society."

She ignored Severus and continued. "Severus tried to help Harry when he was at Hogwarts, and Lucius helped the Grangers get permanent custody of him. We have a tentative alliance."

Sirius deflated slightly. "But they're Slytherins," he whinged.

"So am I."

"You know that's not what I meant. I mean, they were both death eaters. They followed _You-Know-Who._ "

" _Were_. They _were_ death eaters. Just trust me on this, Sirius. Please."

He grumbled. "Fine, Whatever. I'll let it be for now, but the moment I see something that I don't like, I'm grabbing Harry and getting out of here."

"Of course. No one would expect anything less of you," she placated him.

Snape mumbled something unintelligible under his breath. The other two just ignored it.

Andromeda gave an exasperated sigh and left. She was replaced by her daughter, who ran over to Sirius and Severus. "Hey, favorite cousin," she greeted Sirius. He brightened. "Hey Tonks."

"Nymphadora," Severus greeted smoothly. Sirius waited for her inevitable protest, but it never came. "Wait, why do you let _him_ call you by your name?"

Tonks rolled her eyes. "I don't let him; he just does it anyway. I tried to stop him, believe me, I did, but he just never listened."

"Well, that's rude," Sirius said frankly. "But it's not really anything more than I'd expect from a snake like him." Tonks glared at him. He glared back. "I never said I'd be polite to him."

"I wouldn't expect you to attempt, I know it's impossible for a Gryffindor like you," Severus's silken voice retorted. Tonks glared at the two of them. "Do I have to go get mum over here again?" Sirius winced. "No. Please don't. It's not necessary"

"Then behave." Tonks saw something behind Sirius and smirked at Sirius. "Especially you, cousin."

He frowned. "Why especially me? What are you looking at?" He turned around to find himself face to face with Lucius Malfoy. To his disconcertment, Sirius was a few inches shorter than the blond aristocrat. He subtly tried to levitate himself higher than Malfoy, but ended up toppling to the side and into Severus, who growled and shoved Sirius off of him and onto the ground. Sirius jumped up and decided to act as if nothing had happened.

"So, Malfoy, how's life? I imagine things are harder for you now that you don't have your super-secret bad boy band to hide behind."

Malfoy raised an elegant brow. "I have no idea what you are speaking of, Black."

"Of course you'd say that," Sirius muttered underneath his breath. "So where's your spawn- I mean your son, yes where is your son tonight? I haven't seen him tonight. I imagine it would be fairly obvious if he were here, you know, because of the smell." He winced slightly as Tonks kicked his shin.

Lucius ignored Sirius' blatant hostility and continued on as if everything was normal. "Young Draco is visiting a friend's house tonight. It is quite unfortunate, as I know how much he wished to be here, but it was a previous engagement, and it would be rude to disregard such a thing." His judgmental gaze resting upon Sirius implied that some people would not have been so courteous.

"Oh, yeah? Which friend is this? Hestia Carrow? Vincent Crabbe?"

"No, actually, it is one of the Weasley boys."

Sirius choked on his own spit. He glanced at Severus to reassure himself that he had not heard wrongly.

Severus' face was determinedly neutral. He shrugged at Sirius. "I don't understand it either. They apparently got into a fight, and formed a somewhat wary truce in order to rebel against their punishment that has evolved into an almost friendship. It seems to work surprisingly well for them."

Sirius shrugged. "Whatever. So, Lucy, what are you up to nowadays?"

For a moment, it seemed as if Malfoy were going to say something, but a quick glance from Severus seemed to change his mind and he just gave a small, dignified shrug. "The usual."

* * *

Lucius Malfoy strode confidently up to the counter of the Gringotts Wizarding Bank. "I have an appointment with Director Ragnok," he drawled to the teller. The goblin looked up from his work and recognized him. "This way," he grunted. He slid down from his seat and led Lucius through a barely noticeable door off to the right. He stopped in front of a large bronze door. "Right through here."

Lucius stepped through the door to face an ancient goblin, sitting at a large desk with a sheave large stack of parchments laying in front of him. "Greetings, noble goblin," Lucius said, bowing slightly.

The goblin looked up. "Mr. Malfoy. I thought that your kind did not lower themselves to associate with goblins."

"I have separated myself from my former loyalties," Lucius said smoothly.

"Really?" Ragnok looked slightly interested for the first time since Lucius had entered his office. "How interesting. And why are you here?"

Lucius wet his lips nervously. "I would like to request your help."

Ragnok laughed coldly. "Our help? You are lucky to have even made it this far alive. Why should we help you?"

"You know as well as I do how the Dark Lord feels about goblins. Filthy parasites, scuttling about the wizarding world, infuriating their superiors."

Ragnok slammed his dagger into the desk. Lucius didn't flinch. "If your Dark Lord wants a war, then we will give him one. We goblins have no fear of death."

Lucius bowed his head in acknowledgement. "The bravery of the goblin nation is renowned throughout the world," he flattered. "But perhaps it would be better to stop the war before it ever begins again."

"And what is in it for us, besides this war that will likely never happen? Your Dark Lord is gone, you know that."

"I believe that he could return."

"It is impossible to return from the dead," Ragnok scoffed.

Lucius said simply, "Horcruxes." He struggled to hide the pleased smile that threatened to slide across his face at the brief look of terror on the goblin's.

"More than one?"

"By our reckoning, five. From things he said, we supposed that he intended to divide his soul into seven parts, including the portion remaining in his body, but was interrupted by Potter."

"Again, why come to us?"

"I believe that a horcrux resides within Gringott's vaults."

"Impossible," Ragnok breathed.

"The Dark Lord entrusted my sister-in-law, Bellatrix Lestrange, née Black with an object. It is in her vault."

"Tampering with the contents of a wizard's vault without the express permission of the vault's owner is in violation of the Treaty of 1782."

Lucius smirked. "If you destroy this object, and allow me to witness its destruction, then I will return all goblin made objects within all Malfoy vaults to the goblin nation."

Ragnok stared at him in surprise. "And you would be willing to swear an oath to never reveal our violation of the treaty to anyone?"

"Of course, I would expect no less."

The goblin grabbed a clean sheet of parchment from his desk and wrote out a contract. He pulled his dagger out of the tabletop where he had stabbed it. With careful precision, he made a small cut on the tip of his finger, then gingerly wrote his name at the bottom of the parchment and handed it to Lucius. He scanned the contract briefly, then nodded. "It is acceptable." Ragnok offered him his dagger, but Lucius shook his head and lifted his cane, twisting the bottom off to reveal a small knife. He added his name in his blood to the parchment and handed it back to the goblin. "It is done," Ragnok intoned. He pushed his chair back from the desk and stood. "Come."

Down through the twisting tunnels they went, just Lucius Malfoy and the goblin Ragnok, both stone silent. At the bottom of the wild ride, Lucius eyed the dragon calmly. The beast's scales had turned pale and flaky during its long incarceration under the ground. Both of its real legs bore heavy cuffs from which chains led into enormous pegs driven deep into the rocky floor. It turned its ugly head towards them and roared, spitting a jet of fire that failed to cow Lucius, who simply stood there, his hand clutching tightly to his cane.

Ragnok came up beside Lucius, pulling out a number of small metal instruments that when shaken made a loud, ringing noise like miniature hammers on anvils. He advanced, shaking the clankers, and the noise echoed off the rocky walls, grossly magnified. Lucius winced slightly at the noise, his expression still implacable.

The dragon let out another hoarse roar, then retreated. Ragnok handed the clankers to Lucius. "Keep shaking them," he warned. Lucius sniffed in disdainment. "So undignified," he complained.

Ragnok pressed his hand to the door, and it melted away to reveal a cave-like opening crammed from floor to ceiling with golden coins and goblets, silver armor, the skins of exotic beasts that even Lucius barely recognized. Ragnok followed him into the vault, shutting the door with a loud clang. The sounds of the dragon's cries were cut off suddenly, and there was silence. Ragnok looked at Lucius questioningly. "Well?"

He shrugged. "I know little of what it was; Bellatrix mentioned a cup, but that is all I know."

"And you did not question her further?" Ragnok grumbled.

"I should have. Unfortunately, it is impossible to do so at this point. She has been disposed of."

"There!" Ragnok said sharply, pointing to the farthest corner. Lucius started to walk towards it before turning to Ragnok and asking, "Have the curses been removed?"

Ragnok nodded. "Yes. There used to be gemino and flagrante curses present during the war, but they were removed at its end."

"Good." Lucius strode over to the cup and reached up with his cane, snagging it through the handle. He returned to Ragnok with it. "Place it on the floor," the goblin ordered. Lucius did so and stepped back, watching as Ragnok pulled a small vial with a dark green liquid in it. He uncorked it and let a drop fall onto the goblet. For a moment, nothing happened, and the two were left simply staring at the goblet. After perhaps half a minute, a slightly hissing sound could be heard. The parts of the goblet near the green liquid started to blacken. The contagion spread rapidly until the entire cup was blackened. The hissing had grown into a shriek, until finally the cup collapsed into ashes and the screams cut off. "It is done," Ragnok again intoned.

* * *

 **Portions of this were quoted and adapted from _The Deathly Hallows._ Ragnok uses a strong acid derived from basilisk venom to destroy the cup.**


	11. Chapter 11

Fourth year. . .

The next year, Sirius showed up at the Grangers' house unexpectedly, tickets for the Quidditch World Cup clutched in his hand. Upon seeing them, Harry let out a shriek of excitement. Hermione just rolled her eyes at him and continued on with her book.

Of course, Draco also had tickets. The entire Malfoy family did, just as always. But this year, he had invited Ronald Weasley to accompany him. It was a friendship that had surprised both families. The animosity between the Malfoys and the Weasleys was almost legendary, and their first few years at Hogwarts had only served to worsen it. But something had happened between the two young boys the year before. Draco seemed a bit more laid back, and Ron seemed a bit more pompous. Their friendly alliance made Minerva edgy.

High in the stands, someone else wasn't watching the game as the rest of the crowd was. No, he was too interested in the wand sticking up from the back pocket of one Harry Potter, sitting in front of him.

The match was exciting, and everything that Harry had been expecting. And later that night, he and Sirius sat together outside their tent, talking about quidditch. Harry hadn't missed it as much as he thought he would have since leaving Hogwarts. It was never really the game that he enjoyed, but the flying.

Unfortunately, Harry and Sirius' conversation was interrupted by screams.

When everything had been cleared up and Harry's wand had been returned from the house elf that had been found with it, the trio left that night, knowing that Jean and Daniel would be worried when they heard what had happened.

When Harry and Hermione heard about the Triwizard Tournament that would be taking place that year at Hogwarts, they began begging their parents to take them to see the competitions; Hermione because she wanted to meet the students from the other two schools and Harry because he thought it would be awesome, further vindication for Sirius that he had the Potter genes. For Daniel and Jean, it was proof that Harry had moved past his traumatic childhood.

And so they agreed that Sirius could take the two teenagers back to Hogwarts on the days of each task.

* * *

In his library office, Lucius Malfoy pored over the parchment in his hand. If he was truly going to go against the Dark Lord, he needed to do more. Despite his demise, Voldemort's followers were still powerful and active; the events from the World Cup were proof of that. And if the Dark Lord ever returned, they would quickly return to his service. Something needed to be done. And soon.

Later that night, Walden Macnair and Stamatis Greengrass were sitting together in Macnair's library and drinking when there was a sharp crack from down the hallway. Macnair hurriedly pulled out his wand. "The wards are down," he muttered. The two exchanged a sharp glance. Greengrass had his wand out now as well. They barely had a chance to do anything before the door blew open and Lucius Malfoy stepped through, swiftly disarming the two wizards.

"I saw your little stunt at the Quidditch World Cup, Macnair. It wasn't very subtle, was it," he said coldly.

"What are you doing, Malfoy?" Macnair glared at him. Greengrass took a step away from his associate.

"Can I not visit my old compatriots? Perhaps I wished to reminisce about our old glory days, serving together under the Dark Lord." He paced closer to them.

"We've heard about you- what you've been going lately, Malfoy," Macnair declared. "You're going against everything you've ever stood for. And now you show up here in the middle of the night, uninvited. What do you want?"

Lucius paused. He had prepared a witty rejoinder for this moment, but now he was realizing that it was somewhat unnecessary. So without any further words, he killed Walden Macnair.

Out of the corner of his eye, Greengrass saw his companion falling limply to the floor. He mentally readied himself for his impending death, gazing stolidly at the floor. He was no Gryffindor, and had no particular wish to stare death in the face, but nothing happened. He glanced up. Lucius Malfoy stood with his wand right between Stamatis Greengrass' eyes. After a moment, he dropped his wand, releasing him. "Your daughter saved my son," he said coldly. "That debt has now been repaid. I suggest you examine your loyalty to our former Dark Lord very carefully, as I will not be so lenient next time." He glanced down at the corpse on the floor. "And perhaps you should tidy this room." He whirled around and apparated out of the room, leaving Macnair's body behind.

Greengrass gasped deeply, letting his hands fall to the floor. If Malfoy had changed allegiance and was actively going against You-Know-Who's former inner circle, then perhaps it was time to change his perspective on the wizarding world. Or move. That was also an option.

* * *

Cedric Diggory sat up uncertainly. Was this part of the competition? He glanced down and saw his wand lying on the ground beside him. He was picking it up when he heard a cold voice speak from behind him.

"Prepare the boy."

Cedric barely had enough time to look up into the face of Augustus Rookwood before the knife descended.

In his potions lab, Severus Snape let out a gasp and clutched at his forearm.

In the crowd surrounding the maze, Bartemius Crouch Junior let a small smirk slip past his guise as Professor Alastor Moody.

And in the stands, Harry let out a gasp as Cedric Diggory suddenly appeared in the middle of the clearing in front of the stands. The crowd let out a cry of excitement that quickly turned into dismay once it was apparent that Diggory wasn't moving. Professor Sprout scurried over to where he lay on the ground, his hand still clutching tightly to the cup. She looked up at the headmistress and shook her head silently. At that, a cry seemed to come up from the assembled crowd. People began panicking, and there were a few bursts of light from the ministry wizards. Harry craned his head to try and see what was happening on the ground, but Sirius grabbed his shoulder. "We're getting out of here now," he muttered. "Get your cloak out."

Harry pulled his cloak out of his bag and slung it over his shoulders, pulling Hermione closer so she was also covered. Then, while everyone else was distracted with Amos Diggory crying over the body of his dead son, they snuck out of the crowd, being careful not to brush up against anybody else.

They swiftly made their way of off the castle grounds, and then Sirius reached out for them, pulling their cloak off and grabbing each of their arms and pulling them along on side along apparition.

Daniel Granger jumped as his children and Sirius Black appeared in his living room. "What-" he started to say. Sirius cut him off. "Something's happened. Something big."

"What? What happened?"

"I don't know, but Diggory's dead. Just appeared in the middle of the field. I don't know what-" The door opened with a bang, and now Severus Snape had joined the tableau, his dark cloak flaring out behind him.

"What has happened?" he barked at Sirius.

"How am I supposed to know? What are you even doing here?"

"I felt my mark burn," Snape said stiffly.

"Your what?" Harry asked innocently.

The two men looked over to where Harry was standing beside his sister, unaware of what was happening. "It is not your concern, Potter."

"What do you mean it's not his concern?" Sirius snapped. "Of course it's his concern; he's Harry Potter."

"He is a child!"

"He has been involved in this ever since Voldemort killed his parents!"

"Don't say his name!" Sirius hissed violently, clutching at his arm.

"I'll say whatever I want!"

"Boys," Daniel warned. "If you're going to fight, then please do it elsewhere. But not in here, in front of the children."

"Fine!" Severus growled. He grabbed Sirius' arm and dragged him, still protesting, into the kitchen. "What happened at the final task?"

"I already told you all that I know. Cedric Diggory's dead, that's it. I thought it was best to get the kids out of there before anything else happened."

Severus released his arm. "For once, Black, I think you made the right decision."

There was a loud crack outside. Both wizards drew their wands and spun to face the door. "Get back and guard the children," Severus ordered.

"I don't take orders from you."

"Black, your stubborn idiocy will get you killed someday." Severus turned to face Sirius, getting right up in his face.

"I'd rather die than take orders from a death eater like you," Sirius growled back.

Severus responded with his dark, silken voice "That can be arranged."

"What is this? A fight?" Lucius Malfoy's cold voice asked from the open doorway. His hair was strangely disheveled, and his robe hung crookedly from his shoulders. Severus spun around.

"What happened?" he hissed at Lucius. He took a glance over to the door, where Harry and Hermione could be seen trying to eavesdrop. "Not here, not where curious young ears could overhear." He started to lead Severus outside. Sirius tried to follow. Lucius glared him down until he made a quick retreat. "I'll just stay here with the kids," he muttered.

Outside, Lucius muttered a quick muffliato. "He's back."

Severus blanched. "You are sure?"

Lucius nodded. "I went, when he called, under a strong disillusionment charm. He would likely kill me if I had gone, with the stories that the others told him of the recent events. He used Diggory's blood, and Rookwood's severed hand in a ritual. He had Ravenclaw's diadem, the one that the unspeakables confiscated from Hogwarts. Rookwood must have stolen it. He said something about the tournament, and the excess emotions that were necessary for the ritual. I didn't dare ask details about it. And he-" he broke off. "Is that a dog?"

"What?" Severus frowned, turning. There was a large, shaggy black dog behind them that tried to duck out of sight. "Black! Get out of here!"

Sirius shifted back into his human form. "No! I need to be here for this. Harry's my godson," he declared boldly, crossing his arms.

Severus growled in exasperation, reaching up to run an anxious hand through his dark hair. "Stay out of this, Black. It's too dangerous, and I don't trust you."

"You don't trust me?" repeated Sirius, outraged. "Why, Severus, I'm hurt. You know how much you mean to me, I-" he choked as Severus grabbed his throat. Lucius watched, his hands nervously fingering his cane.

"Sirius?" came a quiet voice from behind the dark trio. Severus quickly let go of Sirius and they both spun around. "Harry!" Sirius cried out raspily. "What are you doing here?"

Harry blinked slowly at him, seeming slightly confused. "It hurts," he said softly. "What hurts?" Sirius frowned.

"My scar. It- it hurts." Harry reached up to touch it with a cautious fingertip. Underneath his hand, Severus could see the bright red of fresh blood. "How do you feel, Harry?" he asked softly. Sirius turned to him with a furious expression, but Severus held up a warning hand. "Harry?" he asked again.

"I feel- I don't know, I feel excited. Like something big just happened that I'm happy about." He frowned. "And I keep seeing things. It looks like there's a graveyard, and there're all these people, but they're dressed weird."

Severus glanced over to Lucius, who met his horrified gaze and nodded.

"I don't like it, Sirius," Harry said weakly.

"You don't like it, Potter?" Lucius asked. "I believe that I could help you with that." He drew his wand swiftly. "Avada ked-" Severus cut him off, ramming into him and knocking him onto the ground. "What are you doing!"

Sirius hurriedly grabbed Lucius' wand from where it had fallen and pulled Harry behind him.

"You know what he is, Severus!" Lucius yelled back. He was still on the ground, his long blond hair sprawling in the dirt. He had a maniacal look on his face, and his eyes were wild. "The Dark Lord's back! He's going to kill us all, we have to stop him!" he pointed at Harry. "He has to die, Severus, and you know it. I have to end it." His voice broke.

"No. There has to be another way." Severus shook his head wildly. "I don't believe it."

Sirius could take it no longer. "What is going on? What are you even talking about!"

Severus and Lucius turned to face him. "Potter must die," Lucius rasped out.

"We think that a portion of the Dark Lord's soul is being shielded within Potter's body. It was a method that he used to prolong his life, and all of the soul shards must be destroyed before the Dark Lord can be killed," Severus explained

"Ok," Sirius said nervously. "And how do you do that?"

"You destroy the vessel," Lucius said, staring eerily at Harry with his cold grey eyes. "You destroy the vessel, and the soul fragment has no protection left."

"No," Sirius said, starting to edge back to the house with Harry. "No, there must be another way."

"There is none."

"But surely there is no harm in looking for another way, Lucius," Severus cajoled.

Lucius stared at what little of Harry that he could see from behind Sirius. "One month," he stated.

"What?"

"I will give you one month to find another solution. If you haven't removed and destroyed the soul fragment within that time limit, then I will have no choice but to take the matter into my own hands."

* * *

Ragnok looked up from his desk. "Messrs. Black and Snape. What a surprise. I seem to have become quite popular among wizards recently."

Sirius looked wild, glancing around as if to make sure that no one was listening in on their conversation. "We need to speak with you about something."

"I assumed that was why you were here."

Severus glared at Sirius. "Just shut up, Black. Let me do the talking." He turned to Ragnok. "We need your help concerning the Dark Lord."

Ragnok raised his eyebrow. "Can I assume that you are referring to his horcruxes?"

The wizard stared at him. "What? You already know about them?"

"Yes," the goblin nodded. Sirius waited. "What?" he whinged. "Are you not going to tell us how you know about them?"

Ragnok shrugged. "No. I don't see a need for you to know."

"Whatever." Severus waved it away. "Is it possible to remove a soul fragment without damaging the container?"

The goblin eyed him curiously. "Why would you want to do that?"

"Because he's a horcrux!" Sirius blurted out. Ragnok froze. "He?"

"Black, shut up! Do you know if it is possible?" Severus bluntly asked Ragnok.

"Interesting," the goblin mused. "A human horcrux. I assume it was unintentional?"

"Yes," Sirius bit out.

"I do not know," he finally said. "I would require examination of the soul container first."

Sirius sputtered in indignation at Harry being described as merely a soul container. Severus ignored him. "We would require an oath from you first."

"Of course," Ragnok said magnanimously, spreading his hands innocently. "I would expect no less."

A few short hours later, the two wizards had made the oath with Ragnok, and Sirius had left and returned with Harry. Now Harry stood nervously in front of the elderly goblin while he closely examined his scar.

"Hm. Interesting," he mused.

"What? What's interesting?" Sirius asked. "What is it?"

"I've never seen anything quite like this before."

"What?"

"Silence!" the goblin barked. "I am working!" Sirius slumped against the wall in defeat.

After a careful examination and a quick meeting with a few other goblins, Ragnok returned to them. "We believe that it is possible to remove the soul fragment without damaging the vessel."

"You mean without damaging Harry," Sirius growled.

Ragnok glanced at him dismissively. "Same thing."

"What?" Sirius squawked. "No it's not!"

"Black," Severus warned. "If you can not control yourself, then I will silence you, put you in a body bind, shove you into a vault, and forget that you ever existed."

Sirius shut his mouth.

"As I was saying," the goblin continued. "We think it is possible. If you are willing, we can remove it now."

Severus nodded. "Of course."

"The payment first." Ragnok smiled toothily. "Five thousand galleons."

Severus turned to Sirius. "Pay him."

"Oh, now you want me, now that someone needs to throw money around. I see how it is," Sirius grumbled, his arms folded petulantly.

"Or I suppose we could just leave the Dark Lord's soul in your godson."

"Fine. I'll pay," he grumbled.

After the money had been exchanged, the goblins quickly got to work. They laid Harry down on a large, stone table in the middle of the room and one of the goblins began drawing runes around him. Sirius flinched as if he were going to go to Harry, but Severus drew him back. Within a few minutes the runes were almost finished, encircling where Harry lay. As the last rune was completed, Sirius's heart froze when he saw Harry's chest stop moving. "Snape?" he asked, his voice breaking. "He's not breathing."

"What?" Severus looked over. He drew his wand to try and perform a diagnosis spell, only to have it ripped out of his hands by a goblin. Beside him, the same thing was happening to Sirius. "What are you doing?" Severus snarled.

"We are removing the soul fragment."

"He's stopped breathing!"

"It is necessary for the vessel to be destroyed for the fragment to be vulnerable."

"You said that you could remove it without harming Harry!"

"I lied." Ragnok said calmly. "You should have read the contract more carefully."

"I did," Severus said, his voice tight. "You said that you wouldn't harm the boy."

"I said that I wouldn't harm him unless it was necessary. And it is."

At the stone table, one of the other goblins placed a vial to Harry's slack mouth, rubbing at his throat to make him swallow. A few moments later, he took a deep breath that quickly devolved into a coughing fit. The goblins helped him sit up.

"You see?" Ragnok said. "He is fine. We merely stopped his heart for a few short moments so that the fragment could be destroyed and then resuscitated him."

Severus watched, his face cold, as Sirius rushed over to his godson. "Are you sure that the horcrux has been removed?"

Ragnok nodded. "If it had not been removed, then he would not have woken."

"I do not approve of your methods."

"And yet, we were still more successful than you would ever have been on your own."

Sirius helped Harry stand up, keeping an arm around his shoulders to hold him steady. He caught Severus' eye and nodded at the door. Severus nodded back.

"We will take our leave of you now," he said to Ragnok. "And we will not be back."


	12. Chapter 12

"So what you're saying is that we need to find these objects of You-Know-Who's and destroy them, and then we can kill him. Do I have that right?" Sirius and Severus were meeting at Number 12 Grimmauld Place. It was the only place they could agree on to meet at.

Severus rolled his eyes. "Yes, Black. We've already gone over this. Lucius has already destroyed two of them; one which the Dark Lord left in his care and another that was in Bellatrix's vault. And then there is the one that was used in the Dark Lord's resurrection; Ravenclaw's diadem. And then-" he hesitated, glancing uncertainly at Severus.

"And then Harry," Sirius continued grimmly.

"Yes, and then Potter."

"Do you have any idea how many are left?"

Severus spoke up. "From things that we heard him say, we think that he intended to create six; whether he succeeded with this is uncertain. We're tolerably certain that he only succeeded in creating five."

"Tolerably certain? I'm not sure about those chances."

Severus growled in exasperation. "We have no other choices at this point."

"Whatever." Sirius looked up, spotting his house elf skulking at the edges of the room. "What are you doing here?"

"Kreacher knows," the house elf croaked. "Oh, yes, Kreacher knows all about the Dark Lord's dirty little secrets. But Master doesn't know, no he doesn't. Should Kreacher tell filthy Master? Should he?"

Sirius' hand shot out and grabbed Kreacher by the throat. "What do you know?" he hissed.

"Black!" Severus tried to remove Sirius' hand. Sirius shook him off. "He knows something! Tell us what you know, you filthy little maggot!" He shook the house elf.

Kreacher stared up at Sirius with large, bulbous eyes. "Master Regulus's locket," he croaked out.

"What?"

"The Dark Lord gave Lucius one of them to protect. Is it possible that Regulus also had one?" Severus murmured.

Sirius shook his head, still clutching Kreacher by the neck. "I doubt it. He was never a very good death eater." His voice was bitter.

"Kreacher," Severus said, sounding deceptively gentle. "Can you tell us about Regulus's locket?"

Kreacher stared at him, then his hands fluttered up to Sirius's hands, still choking him.

"Let him go, Black."

"Fine, then. Whatever." Sirius released his house elf, wiping his hands on his shirt with a disgusted look on his face.

"Master Regulus had proper pride; he knew what was due to the name of Black and the dignity of his pure blood. For years he talked of the Dark Lord, who was-"

Sirius interrupted him. "I know all that, get on with it!"

Kreacher gave him an affronted look. "Filthy Master asked Kreacher to talk. Kreacher is talking."

"Just let him talk, Black. And I know it's hard for a Gryffindor like you, but try and control your temper." Sirius glared at him, but sat back in silence.

Severus told Kreacher to continue. And Kreacher did so, telling the story of the Dark Lord's mistake; how he had underestimated the house elf's power, and how he had inadvertently betrayed his deepest secret to Regulus Black. He told how Regulus had ordered Kreacher to return to the cave and take his master with him, how Regulus had drunk the potion and ordered Kreacher to leave without him, how Kreacher had watched as his Master Regulus was dragged beneath the water.

In the end, Sirius had a few tears in his eyes. He wiped them away with the back of his hand. "So the locket is destroyed?" he asked gruffly.

Kreacher shook his head violently. "Nothing Kreacher did made any mark upon it," he moaned. "Kreacher tried everything, everything he knew, but nothing would work. Kreacher punished himself, he tried again, again, again, but nothing worked, so many powerful spells on Master Regulus's locket! And his Mistress was mad with grief, because Master Regulus had disappeared and Kreacher could not tell her what had happened because-" Severus cut him off there. "That's enough elf, we get the picture, you couldn't destroy the locket." He rolled his eyes. Kreacher gave him a hurt look.

"Where is the locket now?"

Kreacher looked at him suspiciously. "Why does filthy Master's friend want to know?"

Sirius sputtered in indignation at Severus being referred to as his friend. Severus just rolled his eyes at him again. "We are going to destroy it."

"Master Sirius is going to finish Master Regulus's task?" Kreacher eyed him with uncertainty.

"Where is it?" Sirius ignored Kreacher's question. "Kreacher will fetch Master Regulus's locket!" the house elf cried, running out of the room. Less than a minute later, he ran back in, the locket dangling from his hand. He held it out to Sirius, who looked at it with a grimace. With an exasperated growl, Severus grabbed it.

"How do we destroy it?" Sirius asked, hovering close now that someone else was holding it.

"There are various ways to do so. Lucius killed one with the killing curse. I thought I'd try that." he offered it to Sirius. "Here, why don't you hold it while I shoot a killing curse at it?"

Sirius's look of disbelief merited a bark of laughter from the Slytherin. He crouched down and placed the locket on the floor. He drew back from the horcrux, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Sirius doing the same. He pointed his wand at the locket and muttered, "Avada kedavra." The bolt of green light bounced off of the locket's golden exterior back at him. With a sharp expletive, Severus ducked. The rebounded curse hit the wall behind him, leaving a burnt mark behind.

"What happened?" Sirius asked sharply.

Severus shrugged. "No idea." He levitated the locket into his hand, folding it over and examining it. "Maybe it has to be opened before it can be destroyed." He tried to lift the clasp.

"Kreacher couldn't open it," the house elf spoke up. "Kreacher tried everything."

After struggling with the clasp of the locket and trying the unlocking charm, Severus said, "Lucius once suggested using fiendfyre. I thought it was too dangerous, but it might be our best chance since by all appearances the killing curse didn't destroy it."

"It didn't? No, really, what gave it away? So are you gonna try fiendfyre then?"

"It couldn't hurt."

"Um, actually, I think it could hurt. It could definitely hurt. As a matter of fact, it could-"

"Shut up, Black." He set the locket on the floor again and created a shield around it. "Back up," he warned.

"I did."

"Back up more." Sirius grumbled, but he backed up again.

Severus took a deep breath and let the flames escape from his wand, encircling the locket and dancing around the edges of the shield. By the time Severus had relaxed his grip on his wand and lowered it, the flames had subsided, leaving nothing but some ash behind.

"It is destroyed," Kreacher breathed in awe. "Master Regulus's locket is destroyed."

The next day Kreacher's cold body was found in that same room, above the ashes that had once been Master Regulus's locket.

* * *

On the outskirts of Little Hangleton, Albus Dumbledore stood in front of a small hut, half hidden among the tangle of trees. It looked like it was no longer inhabited; its walls were mossy and so many tiles had fallen off the roof that the rafters were visible in places. Nettles had grown up all around it, their tips reaching the cracked and broken windows. Stepping carefully, the former headmaster made his way through the door, hanging crookedly from its frame with a battered snake skeleton still nailed to the rotting searched the house carefully, knowing there was likely something hidden in the ramshackle house but not knowing where.

In the main room, his detection spells located something underneath the floors boards. He knelt carefully, ignored the creaking from his knees, and pried the boards up, revealing a small box made out of elder wood. He carefully lifted the lid. There it was. The object that he'd been searching for his entire life. He gently lifted it out of the box, cradling it in the palm of his hand. The resurrection stone. It was believed to be a myth among the majority of the wizarding world, but he knew better.

Albus knew that he had made mistakes throughout his life. They had finally caught up to him a few years ago, and now he had nothing left. His reputation was in tatters, his school was under the guidance of another, and his plans had all fallen through.

Looking back, he knew when everything had started. His very first mistake, his sister Ariana. That was where it had all began. But now, with the resurrection stone, his original mistake could be fixed. With that thought in his heart, Albus Dumbledore slid the ring onto his finger.

In a small hut on the outskirts of Little Hangleton, the blackened body of Albus Dumbledore lay sprawled on the filthy floor, his wand still clutched tightly in his hand.

. . . . .

Sirius Black stood outside the ruined house next to Severus Snape. "Are you sure this is the place?" he asked uncertainly. "I'm not sure about this."

Snape snorted. "No, I'm not sure, that's why this is a _scouting_ trip. We're just going to scope the place out. According to the Ministry and Hogwarts records, this was the Gaunt house."

"And the Gaunts are somehow related to Voldemort," Sirius murmured.

Severus flinched. "Yes."

"You know, we could just light the house on fire from out here," Sirius mused. "That would solve the problem."

"No. I'm going to go inside to scout around, and you are going to stay out here and stand guard."

"But I don't wanna," Sirius whinged. Severus took a deep, calming breath. "Black. Just stay here." Without a backward glance, he entered the derelict house.

A few minutes later, Severus strode out of the hut again, a slight stumble in his step and his face emotionless. "So? What's up?" Sirius asked. Snape didn't respond; he just kept staring back at the hut. He finally lifted his wand and lit the place with fiendfyre before Sirius could stop him.

"Oi! What're you doing?"

"I'm destroying the horcrux." Snape's face was cold, and he seemed to be struggling to control the fiendfyre he had summoned.

"So it was there?"

"Yes."

Sirius stared at him. "Ok, then. You all right, Snape?" Snape didn't bother looking at him.

"I'm fine."

Snape stood there until the house was burnt to the ground and the ashes were blowing around in the wind, dancing in the bright sunlight.

Snape left without saying anything else. Sirius couldn't help but think that he had missed something important.

* * *

"My- my lord?" the quivering death eater spoke up hesitantly. Voldemort gazed languidly at him from his seat. "What." His tone was cold and dangerous.

"My lord, Jugson is dead. We discovered his body late last night. We think . . ." the dark minion trailed off, gulping nervously. "My lord?"

Without a soundless flick of his wand, Lord Voldemort sent his precious Nagini towards the unfortunate death eater. He let out a pitiful squeak of surprise that was quickly silenced by Nagini's fangs. Alone in the room, Voldemort glared down at the corpse of one of his few remaining followers. His inner circle was now completely gone, even after the Azkaban breakout, and the few followers that he still had were weak and untrained. Someone had been hunting his death eaters.

It was likely Lucius Malfoy. His defection made things worse. It had been a mistake to entrust him with one of his precious horcruxes, but at the time he had seemed a loyal servant. As it was, he strongly suspected that Lucius had been hunting after the other ones. He didn't dare check up on them in case it somehow led Lucius to them.

Voldemort sent a snake of fiendfyre at the body of the death eater he had killed earlier. Perhaps it was time to act. Perhaps Lucius would behave better it he lost something dear to him. His son, perhaps. . .

* * *

Early the next morning, Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy were walking at the border of the forbidden forest. Ron saw three first year students ahead. "Oi!" he called out. "What're you lot doing out here?" They jumped, spinning around to face him.

All of a sudden, one of the younger students let out a shrill scream as a large green snake, almost twelve feet long, lunged out of the forest, snapping its jaws and almost managing to bite one of the younger students. Ron yanked the boy behind him as Draco created a shield between the snake and the students.

"What in the name of Merlin is a gigantic snake doing here?" Draco yelled. "No idea!" Ron yelled back. "But I think it's hungry."

"Get back to the castle!" Draco ordered the younger students. "Tell a professor, get help!" They scattered, scuttling back towards the castle.

The snake lunged at the shield again, bounding off. "Why does it look like it's aiming for you?" Ron yelled.

"Why don't you ask it yourself?"

"I'd really rather not. How long do you think you can keep the shield up?"

Draco shrugged. "I guess we'll see."

"No," Ron shook his head. "We can't just wait here; we need to act."

Draco shook his head firmly. "Not me. I'm fine with waiting it out."

"Ok." Ron took a deep, bracing breath. "Let it go." He tightened his grip on his wand.

"What! Are insane?" Draco gasped out.

"Just do it!"

With a groan, Draco let his shield charm drop. "I hate you," he muttered under his breath.

The snake lunged at Draco. As he jumped back, Ron let loose with a bombarda. It hit the snake's head, managing to knock it to the side enough that it missed Draco. It writhed in pain on the ground.

"That should have killed it!" Ron gasped.

"Killed it? That should have shattered its head into a million pieces!" Draco yelled back. "Try something else!"

"Right," Ron said. He took a deep breath, and as the snake was recovering enough to snap at Draco's heels, Ron pointed his wand at it and shouted, "Hariq alrruh!" His spell hit the snake, and a circle of black appeared, growing steadily bigger. The smell of charred flesh began to fill the air as the snake writhed on the ground. Once the darkness had grown until it covered the snake completely, it dissolved into charred ash, leaving burnt grass behind.

Ron reached down to help Draco to his feet. "What was that?" Draco asked.

"The spell?"

"Yeah."

Ron shrugged. "I dunno. It was something Bill showed me, some old Egyptian curse."

They heard yelling coming from the direction of the castle and looked up to see McGonagall and Sprout running towards them.

"They're a bit late, aren't they," Draco said bitterly. Ron shrugged in response.

In another part of England, Lord Voldemort let out a howl of grief and pain.

* * *

"Why is he here?" Sirius growled out, eyeing Lucius Malfoy warily. "You know what he tried to do."

"He's here because I asked him to come," Severus said. "I don't think we'll be able to do this on our own."

Sirius just kept glaring at Lucius. Severus rolled his eyes. "Just try and put up with him until we can end this. Then you'll never have to even see him again if you don't want to."

"Fine." Sirius gave the blond wizard one last glare. "So, what now? There aren't any more of those horcruxes things, are there? I thought we destroyed all of them."

"For the last time, Black, we don't know for sure how many he made in total, it was just an estimate."

"So by your _estimate_ , haven't we destroyed them all?"

Lucius let out a sigh of annoyance, but was forced to acknowledge the truth of Sirius' statement.

"So, what now?" he repeated.

"Now we kill the Dark Lord," Severus declared.

"Wait, what?" Sirius asked, looking surprised. "You mean, like, actually kill him? You-Know-Who?"

"You sound surprised. Did you not know that that was what we were moving towards all along?"

"Well, yes," Sirius admitted. "But I never thought we'd actually get to this point. So how are we going to knock him off? Avada kedavra? A bullet to the head? Break his neck?"

Lucius looked confused. "A _what_ to the head?"

"A bullet. It's a muggle thing."

"Oh." Lucius sneered.

"Any of those would work," Severus interrupted them. "But I think the killing curse would probably be quickest and most convenient. We need to figure out a way to draw him out of hiding."

"Also a contingency plan in case he _did_ make more horcruxes that we don't know about," Lucius murmured. Severus nodded. "That too."

"Well, then." Sirius rubbed his hands together, giggling maniacally. "Let's plan this murder."

* * *

Lord Voldemort stood on the outskirts of Malfoy Manor, watching the lights in the windows. Lucius Malfoy had never answered his call. And Voldemort _knew_ it was him who had been destroying his horcruxes, it had to be. The death of Nagini after she had gone after the Malfoy brat was proof. Malfoy must have found out somehow- perhaps because of the diary he been told to protect with his life. And now he was spending time with Potter- it had to end. His death eaters had slowly been killed, arrested, or driven off, and it was because of Malfoy. His plans were in ruins. But now he would get his revenge, and then he would start over. It would be difficult, but he would do it. He would find more followers and create more horcruxes and kill Potter. But first he had to take care of Lucius Malfoy.

Lord Voldemort snuck closer to the house, masking his presence with various spells. It was a shame that he had come to this; forced to do his own dirty work when he should have been like a king.

He took a step forward and nearly stumbled over something on the ground. The enraged squawking and human-like screaming coming from the bird startled him. He had nearly forgotten that Malfoy kept peacocks in his yard. Arrogant ponce. He sent a killing curse towards it, sending an explosion of feathers into the air.

As Voldemort stepped over the peacock carcass, a loose feather was sucked, unnoticed, into his open mouth. A few steps later and the Dark Lord began to choke. He clutched at his throat with his talon-like fingers, trying to expel the feather. As he struggled to breath, his face began to darken.

Lord Voldemort finally lost the battle with consciousness and fell backward, the slit pupils of his scarlet eyes rolling upward. Tom Riddle hit the ground with a mundane finality, his body feeble and shrunken and his snakelike face vacant and unknowing. The surviving peacock screamed in triumph.

* * *

 **Portions of this chapter were quoted and adapted from** _ **The Deathly Hallows**_ **and** _ **The Half-Blood Prince.**_


	13. Chapter 13

It was early the next morning when Narcissa Malfoy strolled out into her gardens to water her flowers. While she could have ordered one of the house elves to do it, but this was something that she liked to do herself every morning. When she was a child, watering the flowers was something that she had always done with her older sister Andromeda, and after Andromeda left, it was a tradition that she had continued.

One that, unfortunately, Draco refused to participate in.

This morning, Narcissa was carefully watering her irises when she saw the peacocks crowding around something on the ground, attacking whatever it was viciously.

She sent an empty bolt of light at them, scattering the birds. It was probably some poor rabbit or gnome that the birds had killed. They could be so violent sometimes. Lucius kept insisting that they were an important sign of wealth and nobility, but Narcissa thought that they were more trouble than they were worth.

"You poor dear," she crooned as she carefully and smoothly walked over to whatever it was, trying not to startle it. "Did those mean old birds hurt y-" she broke off with a scream as she saw what it was.

A dead body lay on her perfect, pristine lawn, covered in peck marks from the peacocks and the tiny bite marks left by gnomes. It was wearing robes, so at least it wasn't one of those filthy muggles polluting her lawn. The body was turned away from her so she couldn't identify it.

She drew back, pulling her wand out from behind her ear and holding it out. "Homenum revelio."

There was nothing. Whoever it was was dead, and had been for a few hours at least.

Narcissa gave a disgruntled sigh. Now the DMLE would be all over them. A dead body being found on the front lawn of Lucius Malfoy would be like Christmas to Amelia Bones and the media.

She gave the body a nudge to roll it over so she could see who the pathetic plebeian was who was going to deface the honour of the Malfoy family.

She let out another scream.

It was the Dark Lord.

She eyed the carcass carefully. A quick spell revealed the cause of death to be asphyxiation, the source of which seemed to be a peacock feather that had been inhaled and then trapped in the gullet.

Narcissa allowed herself to indulge in a quick smirk.

The Dark Lord Voldemort, brought about by a simple peacock feather. It seemed fitting that one who had considered himself above everyone else was brought down in such a simple way, leaving the ones who actually were better than everyone else to solve the problems he had left behind.

Narcissa carefully stowed her wand back behind her ear and walked back to her flowers. There was no rush. She had time to finish watering her flowers before fetching the aurors to clean up.

. . . . .

"Well, Amelia," Alastor Moody said to his boss, "I guess this is the end." They were standing beside each other, watching as the unspeakables swarmed over the carcass of the wizard formerly known as Lord Voldemort.

"It's never the end," Amelia said darkly. "Just wait, there'll be some big disaster in a week or two. Peace never lasts."

Moody nodded grudgingly. "I was trying to be optimistic, but. . ."

"Really? You, being optimistic?" Amelia stared at him in shock. "Are you sure you're not a polyjuiced imposter again?"

He glared at her with his real eye while the fake one continued to observe the unspeakables.

Amelia glanced over to where Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy stood at the edge of the zone the unspeakables had roped off, speaking obsequiously with Minister Fudge.

"What do you think about them?" she asked Moody, nodding over at the aristocratic couple. "Are they as innocent here as they claim to be?"

"I don't believe a word that comes out of Lucius Malfoy's mouth as a matter of course," Moody said grimly, his magical eye whirring around to glare at the two. "But, in the matter of Voldemort's death, I think that they truly know nothing. They're hiding something else, something big, I know that much," he stamped his staff on the ground emphatically, barely managing to miss Amelia's foot, "But his death certainly seems to have been an accident."

Amelia nodded in acknowledgement and agreement.

. . . . .

The next day, Sirius Black sat down at his table, placing his breakfast down. He unfolded his copy of _The Daily Prophet_ on the table in front of him and swore darkly. There, on the front page, was the headline "You-Know-Who Discovered Dead! Malfoy a Hero!"

He crumbled up the paper and threw it on the floor in disgust. After fuming for a few minutes, he relented and picked it up again, this time reading the entire article.

They had acted without him! All that planning that he had endured with Snape and Malfoy, and they went and killed Voldemort without him!

There was a clatter at the fireplace, and then Harry broke into the room with a yell.

"Sirius! Did you see the paper?"

Sirius quickly wiped away his frown. "I did, Harry."

"He's dead and gone!" Harry collapsed onto a chair dramatically. "I am finally free!"

Sirius chuckled. "So what are you going to do with your newfound freedom?"

"Talk Jean into letting me go to that quidditch camp in France next year, probably."

"Didn't she say it was too dangerous with Voldemort still on the loose?"

Harry nodded glumly. "And Hermione wasn't any help at all," he grumbled. "She kept talking about how quidditch is a waste of time and I should spend more time studying, and-"

"Well, studying _is_ important," Sirius interjected.

"More important than quidditch?" Harry asked, the smirk on his face saying he knew what Sirius would say.

"Well. . ."

"Exactly. But anyway, now that Voldemort's gone, maybe I can talk them into it."

Sirius chuckled. "Well, good luck."

He watched Harry leave. It was astounding how much he had changed in the years since they had first met. The shy, broken boy who had been terrified of anything new had grown into a confident, outspoken teenager, yet he still had a sense of innocence that would likely not be there had Harry been forced to stay with the Dursleys. The effect that Jean, Daniel, and even Snape had had on Harry was evident. Sirius had to admit that Harry would be a better man than James had ever been.

Sirius gazed fondly at where Harry had stood for a few more moments before his eyes drifted back to the forgotten newspaper and grew grim again. He stood abruptly. He need to talk to Snape.

. . . . .

That morning, Severus Snape also sat at his table with his breakfast in front of him. He picked up his copy of _The Daily Prophet_ from where it lay in front of him and swore even darker than Sirius had.

He crumbled up the paper and threw it on the floor in disgust. After fuming for a few minutes, he relented and picked it up again, this time reading the entire article. They had acted without him! All that planning that he had been forced to endure with Black and Malfoy, and they had killed Voldemort without him!

He stood abruptly, the newspaper gripped tightly in his pale fist. He needed to talk to Black.

. . . . .

The two irate wizards ran into each other on the street in front of Number 12 Grimmauld Place. After a quick and heated discussion, they came to the realization that neither one of them knew anything about the deadly downfall of the Dark Lord. A few short minutes later they had apparated to Malfoy Manor to confront Lucius Malfoy.

"Lucius!" Severus cried out as he burst through the sitting room door. At the desk below the window, Draco and Ron looked up from their chess game.

"He's in his study," Draco informed them. Severus stormed out of the room without a further word to either of the boys. Sirius followed.

"Lucius!" Severus bellowed again. Lucius Malfoy looked up calmly from his book. "Severus, what a surprise! What brings you here?" he asked, ignoring the presence of Sirius behind Severus.

Severus strode across the room in three quick strides, slamming the _Daily_ _Prophet_ down right on top of Lucius' book. Sirius trailed behind him like a dutiful puppy. Lucius glanced down at the paper, his eyebrow arched inquisitively.

"Ah. Are you referring, perhaps, to the article concerning the Dark Lord?"

"Yes," Severus growled. "The one that mentions his death. At your hands. We agreed on a plan. Why did you act outside of it?"

"I had an opportunity, and so I took it." Lucius was exceptionally calm in the face of Severus' anger.

Severus glared at him in exasperation.

"Lucius didn't kill the Dark Lord," someone interrupted the two Slytherins' impasse. They looked up to see Narcissa come into the room.

"I was watering the flowers early yesterday morning and I found his body. Lucius had nothing to do with it."

"But," Sirius protested, "the paper said-"

"It was Skeeter," Lucius intervened. "You know I have her in my pocket. She'll say whatever I want her to."

Severus seemed to deflate as he considered what the two Malfoys had said. "So you didn't act without us? It was just a coincidence that the Dark Lord happened to choke on a peacock feather on your front lawn?"

"It wasn't the front lawn, it was the flower gardens on the east side."

Severus rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Do you have any idea what he was doing there?"

"Well, the aurors theorised-"

"I don't care what the aurors think; they don't know everything. Do you think he figured out that we knew about his horcruxes?"

Lucius shrugged. "It's impossible to know at this point. But I know of no other reason for him to try and attack the Manor."

"That's what I think as well," Severus said, "But you still should have contacted me as soon as you found the body."

"Us," Sirius interjected. "You should have contacted us."

"I apologize for any inconvenience this little misunderstanding may have caused you," Lucius stated. "It was not my intent to worry you; it just didn't occur to me to inform you." He reached into the open desk drawer and pulled out a bottle. "I thought that perhaps we could celebrate the downfall of our former lord together."

Sirius brightened up considerably. "Oh, well, that's all right then."

Lucius poured out glasses for the other two wizards.

"Narcissa?" he asked his wife, his hand resting on the top of the fourth glass.

She shook her head. "I have better things to do than sit around drinking all day." She left the room with a flare of her robes.

"In other good news, it seems that our formerly esteemed headmaster has disappeared." Lucius raised his glass in salute.

"Interesting," Severus commented sedately.

"Yeah, it is," said Sirius. "D'you think something happened to him?"

"Perhaps," Lucius said slowly, eyeing Severus' calm countenance. "Perhaps someone decided that they had had enough of his machinations."

Severus shook his head slightly at him. "Or perhaps he had too much confidence in his own skills and knowledge and thus acted rashly."

Lucius tipped his head to his friends. "Perhaps."

Sirius remained oblivious, as always.

* * *

A year later, Lucius Malfoy stood on the edges of Diagon Alley, watching the shoppers scurry around.

The defeat of the Dark Lord and the disappearance of Albus Dumbledore had left even more opportunities for Lucius to slip into more powerful influences and positions.

It was still demeaning for him to lower himself to associate with mudbloods and blood traitors, but his reputation was the best it had ever been.

The few remaining who were loyal to the Dark Lord were either inconsequential or incapacitated.

He glanced down at his robe-covered forearm. His Mark had not pained him at all the entire year. All was well.

END


End file.
